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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.

 

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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.


The delays in SpaceX’s commercial launch schedule appear caused by a series of problems testing the first stage’s upgraded engines.

The delays in SpaceX’s commercial launch schedule appear caused by a series of problems testing the first stage’s upgraded engines.

The article also provides this updated scheduling information:

A successful test will be key for several of SpaceX’s future ambitions, not least their upcoming increase in launch frequency, with the next Falcon 9 – the debut of the v1.1 – set to loft Canada’s space weather satellite, CASSIOPE, out of Vandenberg Air Force Base. This mission has officially slipped to August, with the likelihood it will be re-targeted to September. Focus will then switch to Cape Canaveral, with two satellite missions, the first carrying SES-8, to be followed by the Thaicom 6 launch.

I had suspected the delays were related to the upgrades to Falcon 9. This article confirms this.

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

5 comments

  • wodun

    It is a little surprising that NASA let them do the earlier missions without their final engine.

    The delays are understandable but there will be some drama for the first launch with the new engines.

  • The Merlin 1C was a more mature engine. I hear there’s annoyance at NASA that SpaceX have slipped in the Falcon 9 v1.1 for contracts they won with the Falcon 9 v1.0.

  • SpaceX has never made a secret of their aggressive engineering schedule. If SpaceX did indeed ‘slip in’ an unproven engine on contracted flights, then, yes, there’s cause for concern. But I’m inclined to give SpaceX the benefit of the doubt, as NASA has become increasingly the moribund, hidebound legacy agency.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll admit up front that I’m a fan of SpaceX. You’d think it would NOT be in SpaceX’s interest to begin using an engine they haven’t thoroughly tested & have full confidence in. If there’s a failure, they’re gonna end up with egg on their face – or worse. But I guess that hasn’t stopped people before – the engineers who were concerned about the Shuttle’s o-rings were ignored so NASA could keep to its launch schedule. Does anyone know if SpaceX is planning a test launch of the full Falcon 9 w/uprated engines before a contracted misson takes place ??

  • Roland

    SpaceX should have kept flying the original version for NASA until the new one had been proven. From what I know, NASA is requiring SpaceX to fly two or three successful missions with the new rocket (yes, new rocket -not just engines) before allowing it to dock with the ISS. I can understand why NASA was upset.

    About the only things the same between the two versions are the construction techniques and materials. The new version has different engines, different stage separation mechanism, different engine controllers, different size (and strength) tanks, and different thrust structure.

    Delays in getting a new rocket off the ground are understandable. Delays in NASA’s launch schedule because SpaceX chose to deploy a new rocket instead of using their existing, proven one aren’t!

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