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Readers!

 

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.

 

No matter. I am here, and here I intend to stay. If you like what I do and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

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SpaceX launches 21 more Starlink satellites

SpaceX today successfully launched another 21 Starlink satellites, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral.

The first stage completed its seventeenth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic.

The leaders in the 2024 launch race:

101 SpaceX
46 China
11 Russia
11 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 118 to 69, while SpaceX by itself now leads the entire world, including American companies, 101 to 86.

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

4 comments

  • Ray Van Dune

    So this week I saw a huge rocket launch a huge upper stage into orbit and then return to be caught by giant mechanical arms, to be eventually relaunched.

    Then I saw the largest interplanetary probe ever launched head to Jupiter’s moon Europa, a possible abode of life.

    And a fleet of cars with no human controls driving people around at a product demo.

    And humanoid robots serving drinks at the same event.

    And all this was created by the leadership of one man. One man that everyone else in my family hates.

    And I knew every one of these things was coming, and was waiting for them. But virtually everyone I know was unaware of them… and still is!

  • mkent

    ”SpaceX today successfully launched another 21 Starlink satellites…”

    20.

    More importantly, this launch filled the 19th of 24 planes with direct-to-cell satellites. Only five more launches to go for the initial constellation, though two of those 19 planes are filled with six prototype direct-to-cell satellites each, so probably seven more launches.

    I’m guessing they’ll be filled by the end of the year, so expect initial service to begin early next year.

  • Htos1av

    When Elon makes all this stuff “free”, as there is no ongoing operational costs save manufacturing, setup, and launch, we’ll see what “happens”. Or something like this: “For only a one time setup fee of $1000, you have PERMANENT, forever, cellular/internet services to your device. I would be one of those people that camp out a week before the door opens kinda thing, like we did for playoffs/championships, Zep, and Floyd tix a long time ago….

  • GeorgeC

    Due to the fact that nothing lasts forever in LEO and also due to accounting, dont expext any one payment lifetime deals. Free emergency texts etc.

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