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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:

 

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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.


Sierra Nevada is planning additional glide tests in the fall. using its Dream Chaser engineering test vehicle.

The competition heats up: Sierra Nevada is planning additional glide tests in the fall. using its Dream Chaser engineering test vehicle.

This is the same test vehicle that crashed last October during its first glide test when one landing gear failed to deploy properly. The glide test itself was a success however, as the vehicle did a controlled unmanned glide perfectly to the runway, and the failed landing gear was one that the spacecraft will not use once completed.

Note also that these announced flight tests will occur after NASA eliminates one of the companies competing for the final crew ferrying contract to ISS. This suggests that Sierra Nevada plans to continue development of Dream Chaser, regardless of whether they get the contract or not.

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

5 comments

  • wodun

    “This suggests that Sierra Nevada plans to continue development of Dream Chaser, regardless of whether they get the contract or not.”

    Aren’t they working deals with ESA or individual European countries?

  • mpthompson

    If I recall correctly, there was a deal announced with Germany a few months back.

    I wonder what the chances are that Boeing is the odd man out in the commercial crew deal. I could see NASA wanting a winged vehicle for a number of reasons regardless of the technical merits for such a vehicle versus a capsule.

  • Kelly Starks

    To my knowledge, SNC has only made a deal with ESA to use their docking equipment. But there was some suggestion that it could allow the EU manned space access. Not sure if more manned access via someone elses ship.

  • Kelly Starks

    The 3 bidders are all going at various tactics.
    Boeing highest quality, highest cost, and a Orion like configuration. Boeing would be the safe choice, and choosing another Orion like configuration could suggest they are still convinced of the Orion configuration superiority. But if it looks to Orion like it could threaten support for Orion, and hence endanger the agencies future.

    Dream Chaser significantly cheaper, and offering a lifting body runway landing and gentler G-loads, while still having a blue ribbon set of organizations on the team, and good quality ship on the highest quality launcher. The fact they have continued with the project on their own money without significant NASA support shows commitment. Its a very different craft then Orion and could be said to compliment it – but might be said to imply Orion’s shape isn’t the only obvious choice. Also NASA did not choose them in the last funding selection. No way to know if they are more confident in them now.

    SpaceX is far lower cost (Dragon cost SpaceX only about twice the cost of Dream Chasers life support system??) and quality, inexperienced team, but lots of political and PR clout.

    As to which of these could get a win, if any, is a real open question.

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