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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.
 

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NASA now claims it can launch a manned mission to lunar orbit by 2019

Forgive me if I remain skeptical: NASA is now claiming it will launch a manned mission to lunar orbit by 2019 using its Space Launch System heavy-lift rocket, the program-formerly-called-Constellation.

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

  • Joe2

    Actually they are looking at as early as 2018 (the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 8?).

    With John Shannon heading up the team, it is more likely to succeed than the reusable Falcon 9 (complete with powered, precision, vertical landings for all three stages).

  • libs0n

    duh.

    bucks = buck rogers

    LM, Boeing, ATK, etc have 3 billion a year of taxpayer money to turn into results, while SpaceX must fund their Falcon 9 reusability efforts out of hard earned profits, which will not be anywhere near that scope of taxpayer money.

  • Joe2

    If Space X must “fund their Falcon 9 reusability efforts out of hard earned profits” it will be very difficult indeed, as at this point (other than government subsidies) they have none.

  • Kelly Starks

    NASA sending a Orion(ish) into lunar orbit by 2019 would be doable – if they actually get their act sorted out adn Congress funds them at about the same as projected.

    At least it shows NASA feels it needs to show results…

    Wait a minutte – this is a 180 degree reversal from Obama’s directive to Bolden that NASA must never sent people BEO. Have the political winds shifted that much?

  • Joe2

    “Have the political winds shifted that much?”

    it is to early to tell, but lets hope so.

  • libs0n

    “Wait a minutte – this is a 180 degree reversal from Obama’s directive to Bolden that NASA must never sent people BEO. Have the political winds shifted that much?”

    There is no such directive. You willfully delude yourself.

  • Kelly Starks

    > There is no such directive. …

    Thats not what Bolden said, and given hes in charge of NASA at the moment, if he got it wrong, Obama might want to give him a call.

    ;)

  • libs0n

    Prove it. Show me Bolden’s word’s to that effect.

  • Kelly Starks

    Sorry, its been a couple years – and I can’t find it. I know I kept a copy on my hard drive, but after a couple hours I can’t find it!! Annoying given I was corresponding with folks on it for a while since it so shocked folks.

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