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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
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.


June 3, 2024 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

 

 

 

 

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

9 comments

  • Patrick Underwood

    Minor correction, White flew Gemini 4.

  • wayne

    I’ll drop this in here:

    Gemini 9A Full Mission
    Retro Space (2023)
    https://youtu.be/EIUTv9OM008
    (51:31)

    “The Gemini IX mission, entirely based on historical narration, mission audio and footage. The full mission is covered, showing training, launch, Agena rendezvous, EVA, recovery and results.”

  • Patrick Underwood. Typo fixed. I misread the roman numerals, when I should have just used my own brain. Thanks.

  • wayne

    and this one.
    (very well done)

    The Roger B. Chaffee Planetarium (2014)
    Grand Rapids Public Museum, Grand Rapids, Mi.
    https://youtu.be/8QYRGP9S8pM
    6:23

  • Chris

    The first docking in space was achieved by Gemini 8

  • wayne

    Chris–

    Gemini 8 –
    “We’ve Got Serious Problems Here….”
    https://youtu.be/WniA1hsqsPs
    (1:04:15)

    “The crew perform the first docking of two spacecraft in orbit, which is followed, not long afterwards, with the near catastrophic incident. Unknown to the crew, a thruster on Gemini becomes stuck open and the docked spacecraft begin to yaw. Thinking the issue is with the Agena, the crew separate from it, but the yaw turns into a spin as the thruster continues to spew fuel out the side of the spacecraft. As the crew regains contact with CSQ the drama unfolds…..”

  • Catch Thirty-Thr33

    On the northeast side of San Antonio, there is a middle school name Ed White Middle School. Named for THE Ed White, of course.

  • Chris: I should have said the “first completely successful docking”, as Gemini 8 has serious problems that caused an immediate mission abort only 30 minutes after that docking. Though the problem, an out of control attitude thruster, was believed to be independent of the docking, no one could be sure until it was done again.

    I have added the appropriate words.

  • wayne

    Catch Thirty-Thr33-
    Good stuff.
    Apparently, there’s a Roger B. Chaffee Elementary School, and the Virgil Grissom High School, in Huntsville, Alabama.

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