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The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

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South Texas booming due to arrival of SpaceX

Link here. The article details the major tourism and industry dollars that have come into existence in the Brownsville region since SpaceX established its Boca Chica launch facility, including major development now underway to cater to the tourist business of travelers eager to get a close look at a Starship/Superheavy launch.

The article gives a sense of the reality on the ground. While the anti-Musk activist groups sue SpaceX in their attempt to shut down Starship/Superheavy development, claiming it is harming the region, stories like this put the lie to those claims.

Hat tip to Robert Pratt of Pratt on Texas.

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

7 comments

  • Brewingfrog

    The “sellout” of the hotels on SPI was greatly helped by the fact that Spring Break was in full gear that week. Not that there wasn’t a zillion people heading down to see the launch, as the hotel sellouts in neighboring areas show, but it was a contributing factor to be sure.

    Luckily, my home is only a three-hour drive from SPI. Packing up the truck and heading down is not a problem, just so we arrive at Isla Blanca Park early enough to fit into a parking spot.

    Hopefully, IFT-4 will be close enough to the One Year Anniversary that champagne will be in order!

  • Mike Borgelt

    Old song from the album “Minus Ten and Counting” (on Youtube).
    Captures the spirit of those who want to personally witness history being made although a few words need changing now.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3QeX5GDRaU
    Then there is this awesome anthem for the workers at Boca Chica
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZSTkunGczI
    Turning “cold refin-ed steel into the dreams of spaceflight” indeed.

  • ‘South Texas booming due to arrival of SpaceX”

    I see what you did, there.

  • Gary

    Blair,

    I assume that headline alone with start and FAA and Fish & Wildlife investigation.

  • Dick Eagleson

    Mike,

    I’ve still got a copy of the ‘Songs of the Space Age’ book Off Centaur Publications produced as a companion piece to the ‘Minus Ten and Counting’ album – bought at the 1982 LosCon. You’re right that Leslie Fish’s lyrics to ‘Witnesses’ Waltz’ need only quite minor tweaks to work perfectly for Texas Tank Watching. Mary Jean Holmes’s ‘Everyman’ works fine with no edits at all.

    The only quibble I have with the presciently durable ‘Everyman’ is the notion that those who build the ships will never get to fly in them. I suspect more than a few of the SpaceX hardhats will finish their careers with time on-orbit or on the Moon or Mars in their logbooks. Settling the Moon and Mars is going to necessitate a lot of building of all sorts. Who better to do it than the people who built Starbase as a warm-up exercise?

  • Mike Borgelt

    Dick Eagleson, I have a copy also, bought along with the cassette tape in Melbourne, Australia around 1987 when there was a SF bookstore in one of the main streets in the CBD.
    Leslie Fish’s “Sentries” should have been the Space Force anthem.
    I hope at least some of folks building Starbase get to fly in space and walk on the Moon or Mars.

  • Jeff Wright

    Some of those facilities used to be Beal’s, right?
    That’s a story right there

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