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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
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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.


SpaceX to resume launches at second launchpad in December

Capitalism in space: SpaceX plans to resume launches in December at its second Kennedy launchpad that was damaged in the September 2016 explosion.

This means that after the mid-November launch of Northrop Grumman’s Zuma payload, they will begin the reconfiguration of that launchpad for Falcon Heavy. Initially the company had said it would take two months to complete that work, which would push the first Falcon Heavy launch into 2018. More recently they say they can get the work done in six weeks. Either way, this suggests that the first attempt to launch Falcon Heavy around the first of the year.

Posted on the road from Tucson to the Grand Canyon. This weekend I am running a new cave survey project there, and we are hiking down this afternoon, with the plan to hike out on Monday.]

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

  • Des

    Some work has already been done on the TEL (Transporter Erector Launcher) on pad 39a between launches, hence probably the decrease in the estimate of time to complete the work to 6 weeks.

  • geoffc

    I suspect they have concrete work to do, which takes time to cure, especially if you plan on dumping 3.6 millions lbs of thrust on top of it.

    They have been stripping down the RSS a fair bit, but that is not in the way of Heavy launch.

    There are images showing at least 2 more hold downs installed on the launch tablet.
    https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20171002/be32d7c04f9d708740d41bf84ba39885.jpg

    So they definitily have been sneaking the work in, hopefully using teh August break for other parts.

  • Kirk

    geoffc, the Koreasat-5A photos are showing that they’ve installed two more hold downs (the outboardmost clamps for the side boosters) beyond that. They aren’t wasting the time between launches.

    https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?action=dlattach;topic=43901.0;attach=1456949;image

  • Kirk

    NSF is now reporting publicly that NASA has approved the use of a reused booster for the upcoming SPX/CRS-13 mission (currently scheduled for a December 4 launch), to fly on the booster recovered from the June 3 CRS-11 flight.

    When they catch that booster, they will for the first time have recovered a booster which has twice flown on gentle LEO missions — possibly making it a candidate for a third flight. The three booster reflown so far each had an initial LEO flight, followed by a GTO flight and recovery, though sometimes rather crispy, as with the June 23 BulgariaSat-1 flight.

    We are still waiting for the first flight of a “Block 5” Falcon 9 which incorporates both increased engine thrust and improvements to facilitate reuse, with the goal being ten flights with only inspection, not refurbishment between flights. Only Block 5 will be used for commercial crew flights, so they need to get some of them flying successfully before their Commercial Crew demo missions.

  • Kirk

    NSF has updated their article, clarifying that while NASA has internally cleared reflying used boosters for CRS flights, starting with CRS-13, “NASA’s official stance remains one of no decision being made”.

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