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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.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

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Opportunity heads uphill after engineers finally pinpoint the origin of the rock that appeared out of nowhere.

Opportunity heads uphill after engineers finally pinpoint the origin of the rock that appeared out of nowhere.

They have now confirmed that the rock was kicked off a larger piece when Opportunity traveled over it.

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

10 comments

  • Naomi

    Hi Bob! It’s Naomi from the old days in Brooklyn! I heard you on Coast to Coast on Jan. 29th. Was VERY SURPRIZED! Would like to open a correspondence with you.

  • Naomi

    Please e-mail me back.

  • Cotour

    Attention NASA nerds, I still do not know what this item attached to the ISS is.

    http://youtu.be/8kXBgT-4wjY

    Comments? Reasonable interpretation / explanation? Anyone?

  • Pzatchok

    Is NASA serious?

    Did they actually stop the rover to investigate a pebble?
    On a planet of rocks they stopped to investigate a pebble that might have rolled down hill as they passed by.

    No wonder nothing ever gets done on time.

  • Cotour

    Attention NASA nerds, I still do not know what this item attached to the ISS is.

    http://youtu.be/8kXBgT-4wjY

    Comments? Reasonable interpretation / explanation? Anyone?

  • joe

    Definite delta wing shape, it flies in an atmosphere, not alien.

  • Cotour

    Why would, what I would assume be a top secret something, be hanging around the ISS? There are cameras accessible by the public all over it. And why is it not being commented on or explained by NASA? I have never seen a shape like that on anything being developed, it is unlike anything that I am aware of and it does not reflect standard / established design layouts. Our space stuff is based in basic shapes with some complex curves, this appears to be more organic in design.

    I think that we can all agree that there is something there, there. What is it, who made it and what purpose does it serve?

    I have to assume that this site has a very high percentage of NASA either employees, ex employees or just plain space nerds and an answer should be forth coming. But I can find no relevant comment.

  • joe

    Cotour, how do you know that the video is authentic, to me this looks like a space plane, if it is top secret, its possible no one not in the know would have seen such a vehicle, to me it has a delta wing shape not unlike other such concepts I have seen, and finally the resolution of this object is rather low, unlike other parts of the space station that are in higher resolution.

  • Cotour

    I agree that it could be a hoax, it is very possible given today’s level of technology, but its a pretty good one if it is.

  • Edward

    Of course NASA is serious. Examining the rocks, pebbles, and soil is why we put Curiosity on Mars in the first place. This was an opportunity to examine the underside, the unexposed side, of a rock. After all the expense and effort of getting instruments there, would you really pass up that science?

    Although it can collect soil samples and the powder of holes drilled into rocks, the arm with the APXS and the MAHLI is not intended to turn over rocks for investigation.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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