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Readers!

 

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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Filming rocket launches

An evening pause: Normally I post things unrelated to space in my evening pauses, but this video describing the history of the development of the cameras that film rocket launches is too good to not post. Besides, every rocket launch is entertaining to watch, even those that fail.

Hat tip Kevin Franke.

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

8 comments

  • MarcusZ1967

    Curious Droid is a GREAT researcher…. been a fan and subscriber of his for a many years….

    Another great one here….

    https://youtu.be/ovD0aLdRUs0

  • Phill O

    Nice video!

  • Jason Hillyer

    Saw this years ago, great video with lot’s of information. I also have been Subscribed to Curious Droid for quite a while.

  • Chris

    Very cool video
    Directly after college I worked for Contraves in Pittsburgh for almost ten years.
    The engineering staff was second to none. It was engineering nirvana for a kid just out of school.

  • wayne

    Kevin–
    great selection!

    related:
    there exists a great documentary on the film unit that photographed all the nuclear bomb tests…. but I can’t readily locate it.
    The Lookout Mountain film lab people. Lengthy, with interviews from alumni and excellent archival footage.

  • wayne

    here we go….
    (–not sure if this complete)

    “Hollywood’s Top Secret Film Studio”
    https://youtu.be/OWTNxaEYNUM
    51:45

  • pzatchok

    A while ago I was looking for telescope mounts and actually found a bunch of these telescope camera mounts for sale at close to scrap prices.

    They were all from the Nevada test range I believe, WSMR, and went on sale when they upgraded about 10 years or so ago.

    Cameras not included. But the optics were.

  • wayne

    pzatchok-
    great story!

    pivoting back quite a bit further:
    after the rocket launch is filmed….
    “Baker Nunn Satellite Tracking Cameras”
    http://bollerandchivens.com/?p=561

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