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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

No matter. I am here, and here I intend to stay. If you like what I do and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

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Private Space wins the Race

Last night the National Interest posted an op-ed written by me and drawn from my policy paper, Capitalism in Space.

The title is “Private Space wins the Race.”

More buzz is good. Feel free to comment there, if you have the time.

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

6 comments

  • ralph muha

    Last night I happened to watch this movie (for the umpteenth time):

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destination_Moon_(film)

    (quoting from wiki) “The film’s premise is that U.S. private industry will mobilize, finance, and manufacture the first spacecraft to the Moon, while making the assumption that the U.S. government will then be forced to purchase or lease this new technology to remain the dominant power in space and on the Moon. Industrialists are shown cooperating to support the private venture.”

  • Dick Eagleson

    I had the time, Robert.

    I made the modest proposal that SLS-Orion either be re-engineered for maximum reusability, or killed.

  • Dick: You realize that Congress will look at your proposal and see a justification for re-engineering SLS, starting over and giving it $3 billion a year for the next decade to make it reusable. It won’t be reusable, but it will then exist as a jobs program for another decade.

    This is not what we want. We can’t give Congress a choice. They have to kill it, period.

  • Edward

    Calvin Dodge,
    Thank you for the link. I had not found the online version, but I have posted a comment.

    Reviewing the other comments, it seems that Pace’s opinion is not popular with the Space News readership. Then again, it is possible that Space News readers are some of the wishful thinkers with a “deep desire … to believe that a path to the stars exists independent of political and economic realities [from Pace’s Op-ed].”

  • Calvin Dodge

    And it’s also possible that Pace’s views are related to his Institute’s sponsors, almost all of whom have suffered mightily due to competition from SpaceX.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

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