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My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

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Russians say “Nyet” to Dragon docking on its next flight

The competition plays hardball: The Russians say “Nyet” to letting SpaceX’s Dragon capsule dock with ISS on its next flight.

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

4 comments

  • P.S. Wallace

    And the other partners did not want tourists on board the ISS. So what, Russia?

  • Yeah, and considering that they won’t actually be docking the Dragon anyway, they’ll be berthing it, I can’t really see the point of this announcement.. it’s just politics.

  • Kelly Starks

    I’ve got two thoughts and a grin over this. Imean you could just write it off as Russia not wanting to help a possible competitor – but really SpaceX is in no position to compete with them.

    Or you could remember the Soviets/Russians nearly destroyed their Mir space Station, and nearly lost the crew, when they tried a test docking a prototype new automatic docking cargo craft. A good chunk of Mir was destroyed, and they been doing that sort of thing a LOT longer then musk has been walking around. So with Russia about to become the defacto owners of the ISS – they might very well not want some fly by night dot.com billionaire with political connections to trash it.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    It’s real simple – they know they aren’t going to be able to compete on price & probably not quality either, and that’s why they fear SpaceX. They’re in no hurry to lose business – they need the $$ they’re gonna derive by charging us millions per flight to carry our guys now that we have no other way to get ’em into space (after the final Shuttle flight)…

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