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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
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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.


The companies building manned spacecraft for the United States all appear to be on track.

The companies building manned spacecraft for the United States all appear to be on track.

The report gives a nice overview of the recent achievements of all three companies, and suggests that the U.S. will once again have a manned spacecraft capability before the decade has ended coming from more than one design.

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

7 comments

  • Lockheed Martin’s Orion MPCV is also on track. Despite innuendo to the contrary.

  • Orion might be on track, but it doesn’t have a launch vehicle, tied as it is to the ball-and-chain called SLS. Dragon, CST-100, and Dream Chaser are instead being designed for rockets that presently exist and will fly.

  • wodun

    And Orion gets more money than commercial crew. We, not just NASA, get 3 vehicles for a fraction of Orion’s cost.

  • And Orion is still on track. I just demand accuracy, that’s all. I understand and agree with your other points.

  • Since I expect SLS to die without accomplishing much, Orion will either die also, or get hitched to another wagon to survive. It is my hope that Lockheed Martin eventually finds a way to hitch to that other wagon, and then make money with Orion.

  • Pzatchok

    SLS and Orion were never meant to fly.

    They are just a great way to funnel cash to congresses greatest benefactors.

    Otherwise SLS would already be built and lifting cargo and other payloads. The fact is the dang thing isn’t even up to testing yet and at NASA’s rate the thing will never be ready to fly.

  • Edward

    I’m still rooting for Orion — so long as it can fly multiple times each year.

    I’m not rooting so much for SLS, as it can only fly once every few years and costs a fortune to develop.

    With luck, there will be an alternate launcher for Orion so that America can get back into space exploration.

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