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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.

 

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NASA to announce its commercial crew decision today.

NASA to announce its commercial crew decision today at 4 pm (Eastern).

The rumors say that Boeing will win it all, which I think will be a financial, technical, and public relations disaster for NASA.

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

4 comments

  • David M. Cook

    I can’t imagine NASA being THAT stupid! (OK, I can! But still…) I would like to see them select at least two of the three for more funding, but to only select Boeing would actually seal NASA’s fate as another unnecessary government program.
    After Mr. Musk builds out his launch services company NASA will be about as important to real space operations as the Department of Agriculture is to running freight on the interstate highways.

  • Steve C

    Of course they will pick Boeing. Too many lobbyists and Congress Critters on Boeing’s side. Boeing will consume a lot of money and never produce anything. They make their money on the development so actually finishing the product ends the gravy train. I think Space X will complete their development, if the Government does not use the bureaucracy to shut them down so they don’t look stupid for choosing Boeing. Sierra Nevada is more of a question mark, since they haven’t flown and are using government rockets.

  • Kelly Starks

    Boeing is the no brainer. Even the folks here weer figuring they rae so much farther ahead, while pushing themselves to significantly higher quality and safty levels, NASA would be a idiot not to choose them. They are the low-risk/shortest schedule/highest quality option..

    Still hoping Dream Chaser gets a #2 win (having 3 capsules in work at the same time to ferry folks to the ISS seems dumb) if there is a #2.

    See at 4est.

  • “Boeing is the no brainer.”

    Well, Kelly, it now looks like NASA has half a brain. The no-brainer half picked Boeing, and the other half picked SpaceX.

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