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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.

 

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Russia’s space agency has proposed a space exploration plan through 2030, including missions to the Moon and Mars.

Competition rules! Russia’s space agency has proposed a space exploration plan through 2030, including missions to the Moon and Mars, in an effort to catch up with the U.S.

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

6 comments

  • wodun

    China has plans to go to the moon. Russia has plans to go to the moon and we have plans to go to… hrmm… to go to… We have plans to go to…

  • Kelly Starks

    When has Russia ever followed through with the cool sounding plans the Russian space agency proposed?

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Don’t the Russians have a plan for a Circumlunar flight around the Moon (not a landing) within a few years? Of course, no guarantee they’ll pull that off, but they seem to think they have the ability to do so now or very soon. The Chinese might not achieve their goals anytime soon, either – but I’d rather at least have some sort of realistic plan rather than “We have plans to go to…”, as wodun says ! ! Pertty obvious this current Admin has next to NO interest in manned spaceflight, unless it can be turned into something related to GloBULL Warming or whatever…

  • Kelly Starks

    The Circumlunar flight was one a tourist form was contracting from them. I.E. if the tourist firm could get 2 tourists to fork over enoughto pay for the flight – the Russians would fly it with them onboard.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Right – that’s the one I was thinking of. Well, who knows if they can pull it off. As long as they have the ability to boost a Soyuz from Earth-orbit to translunar, no reason it couldn’t be done – pretty cramped quarters for a trip that long, but then again, the Apollo guys did it. Does anyone know how interior space of Soyuz compares to Apollo? Roughly the same? More? Less?

  • Kelly Starks

    >…Does anyone know how interior space of Soyuz compares to Apollo?

    Much much smaller. You could pretty much put a Soyuz reentry capsule in a Apollo capsule without bending the consulo. Also, the Soyuz quality levels are decline as Russia is losing the ability to sustain the infrastructure.

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