To read this post please scroll down.

 

Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five ways of doing so:

 

1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


FAA issues launch license to Rocket Lab

8:12 am

Capitalism in space: The FAA has issued a launch license to Rocket Lab for three launches from New Zealand.

This is no surprise. As I noted on May 15, I suspect the reason Rocket Lab announced its launch date for May 22 before getting the launch license was to force the FAA to finally issue it.

Genesis cover

On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.

 

The print edition can be purchased at Amazon or from any other book seller. If you want an autographed copy the price is $60 for the hardback and $45 for the paperback, plus $8 shipping for each. Go here for purchasing details. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.


The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
 

"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News

8 comments

8 comments

  • wayne
    May 19, 2017 at 8:16 am

    Q:
    -How much do these launch-license’s cost the applicant?
    -Anyone have a link to a PDF of the entire application? I would like to read one.

  • Robert Zimmerman
    May 19, 2017 at 8:31 am

    Wayne: To see the license process for expendable rockets, go here: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/licenses_permits/launch_reentry/#expendable

    They have different procedures, depending on the rocket. Go to https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ast/licenses_permits/ to see all the options.

    The process is apparently complex and time-consuming, much more than it should be.

  • wayne
    May 19, 2017 at 8:34 am

    Thank you!

  • fred
    May 19, 2017 at 8:51 am

    Hmm. I’m wondering why a launch from New Zealand would require **any permission** from the US

  • Robert Zimmerman
    May 19, 2017 at 8:58 am

    Fred: Because Rocket Lab is based in the U.S., it needs FAA approval. This is to maintain its proper legal status in the U.S. so that satellite companies here can buy their services.

  • wayne
    May 19, 2017 at 8:58 am

    Fred–
    -the company itself is based in the United States.
    (In part, this is the inevitable fall out of contorting the Commerce Clause beyond reality.)

  • Cotour
    May 19, 2017 at 1:02 pm

    Related because its about the FAA:

    http://thehill.com/policy/transportation/334233-appeals-court-strikes-down-federal-registration-rule-for-toy-drones

    Interesting. I am certain that the FAA knew the limits of their scope to regulate and thought that they would just go for it anyway and see what happens. I suppose this establishes a starting point to attempt to control to some degree, from their point of view?

    Drones can and I am sure will be something to contend with related to security in the future. They are relatively cheap, are getting more and more powerful, they can carry a bigger and bigger payload, longer and longer range and speed, essentially undetectable by radar, there can be many controlled simultaneously and precisely delivered pretty much anywhere using GPS. GULP!

  • Edward
    May 19, 2017 at 4:41 pm

    fred wrote: “I’m wondering why a launch from New Zealand would require **any permission** from the US”

    In another thread, John E Bowen wrote: “the US has a big reach, big sphere of influence.”
    http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/rocket-lab-sets-may-21-for-first-test-launch-of-its-electron-rocket/#comment-983522

    US companies have to follow US law, even when they operate outside the US. For example, it is illegal for a US company to use bribery, even in countries where bribery is customarily expected (when working for defense contractors, I had to attend annual ethics classes just to make sure that these types of concepts were beat into my head).

    When a US company operates in New Zealand (a non-bribery country, just to be clear) then it is still required to get proper US permissions to launch its rockets, and it is still required to comply with ITAR restrictions (ITAR was beat into my head even while doing commercial work, but that is because even a communication satellite is considered a munition, for ITAR purposes — heh, it seems that the continued beatings worked, as I still remember this stuff, but my morale didn’t improve).

    There may be advantages to being a US company (although I can’t think of any as I write this; so much for morale), but there are disadvantages, too. Companies must comply with their homeland laws as well as the laws of each country they operate in.

    In this way, every country has a big sphere of influence.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *