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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.

 

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
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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.


Weather delays Falcon 9 launch till Thursday

High winds has forced SpaceX to delay today’s commercial Falcon 9 launch two days.

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

  • Michael

    I have a couple of questions that may seem silly but they intrigue me.

    Shortly after the second stage engine starts up a band of some sort can be seen flying off the the bottom of the bell. What function is being performed?

    Secondly, where is the Space X firing room for LC39A? For Shuttle we used FR1 for most OPF and Pad operations, even when we went off Pad B. We occasionally used FR2, and FR3 was left as a monument to Apollo. I imagine FR1 is reserved for SLS, between the various OPF bays and on-going projects I can imagine FR2 being used, and I cannot see NASA giving up FR3. So where? I see a building adjacent to the HIF that may be the location, but I keep thinking about how close it is to the launch mount –- but then I remember at Vandenberg you could spit from the control room at Slick 6 and hit the pad.

    Anyway, just curious.

  • wayne

    Michael–
    I’ve noticed that band as well.
    –I could speculate, but I know we have actual rocket-scientists, who can & will enlighten us, so I’ll refrain.
    (There are no silly questions— just silly answers!!)

  • Calvin Dodge

    Per reddit:

    That is the second stage engine nozzle stiffener ring. The bell nozzle on the MVac is not very rigid (this is for a variety of reasons, most importantly are weight savings and ensuring good thermal radiative properties to keep it cool), especially when the engine is not firing. The ring keeps the nozzle from flexing too much during the first stage burn. After the MVac is ignited, the positive pressure from the engine firing pushes on the inside of the nozzle which prevents it from flexing, so the stabilizer ring is no longer needed and it falls off, as it is designed to do.

  • wayne

    Calvin Dodge–
    Thank you very much for that factoid!

  • Michael

    Calvin Dodge–
    Thank you for the info

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