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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.


Review of the four private space stations presently under construction

Link here. The review provides a nice summary of the status of all four stations, being built by Axiom, Vast, and consortiums led by Blue Origin (Orbital Reef) and Voyager Space (Starlab).

The article included one piece of new news, based on recent stories suggesting major financial issues at Axiom:

As a result of these issues, the Axiom Station is believed to have been downsized to two modules from the originally planned four. There will be a reduced research capability from this arrangement compared to what was expected. However, it remains to be seen if additional capability can be added after the station becomes operational.

The original plan had been to separate the station from ISS once all four modules were launched. Whether it will be able to do so, flying independent of ISS’s systems with only two modules is unclear.

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

3 comments

  • Dick Eagleson

    An interesting and timely roundup, especially given Vast’s recent revelation of its Haven-2 plans in Milan. Given that Vast appears to have adequate funds and is following the SpaceX model of being quite vertically integrated as well as in setting aggressive schedule goals, I think the company has to be considered the current front-runner. Starlab, I would judge to be in second place, Orbital Reef to be in third place and Axiom to be bringing up the rear in fourth place.

    If Axiom falls by the wayside, we would not only lose the planned Axiom Station, but NASA would also lose its only remaining lunar EVA space suit contractor. That would, of course, make SpaceX the only entity likely able to produce suitable suits on the schedule required – something it seems pretty clear SpaceX intends to pursue even if Axiom survives.

    I think SpaceX’s Starship efforts in 2025 – while also including the likely first deployments of Version 3 Starlinks – will be dominated by aggressive pushes to advance all of the capabilities needed to support SpaceX’s Artemis program obligations as well as major progress on a Dear Moon-ish Starship version to support launch and return of sizable crews directly from and back to Earth, respectively. NASA has all but declared SpaceX to be the thing holding up the notional Artemis mission schedule. I don’t think Musk likes that at all so I foresee a full-court press in the coming year to make it plain, by next year’s end, that SpaceX will have all of its Artemis ducks in a row before NASA can say the same – especially whatever NASA decides to do about the problematic Orion heat shield.

  • Larry

    I’ll be shocked if any of these are ever launched, and even more so, manned, as independent (ie., not attached to ISS) space stations.

    Unless SpaceX decides to get in the space station business, leaving a Starship in orbit with as much habitable volume as ISS, I doubt there will be any private space stations. This is just another pipe dream for dumb investment bankers.

  • Jeff Wright

    VAST thinks big at least

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