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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.

 

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Some interesting comments about NASA’s future from Clark Lindsey

Clark Lindsey of www.rlvnews.com/ has posted some interesting thoughts in reaction to the successful launch of the Air Force’s second reusable X-37b yesterday and how this relates to NASA’s budget battles in Congress. Key quote for me:

Charles Bolden doesn’t seem prepared to make a forceful case against the clear and obvious dumbness of the HLV/Orion program. Perhaps he in fact wants a make-work project for NASA to sustain the employee base.

As I’ve said before, the program-formerly-called-Constellation is nothing more than pork, and will never get built. Why waste any money on it now?

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

2 comments

  • Kelly Starks

     ..As I’ve said before, the program-formerly-called-Constellation is nothing more than pork, and will never get built.
     > Why waste any money on it now?
    Robert, Robert, Robert.

    Pork was the primary design goal of Constellation. How else could Griffen design a return to the moon configuration rivaling the total cost of the total space race program of the ‘60’s in same year dollars. An Orion Capsule that would cost 20% more to develop then the shuttle orbiters, and yet was fully expendable and much less safe (compromises must be made to keep the costs up) then the orbiters. 2 Ares boosters that each rivaled the total development cost of the total shuttle program.

    Pork has been one of the two primary goals of NASA (sp[ace merely a means to those ends) and Griffin could boast of delivering in spades. Congress and the public would get the pork they loved – and they would give NASA the votes it needed.

    Seriously bad timing for Griffin with the public – and hence congress.. reluctantly – losing their taste for pork. As of yet no other real mission has been agreed to, so the point is to just keep it running so all US manned space (old space or new space) capabilities in the country does die. There is a real love in the US for the US to have a NASA and a manned space program. But sorting that out isn’t a high priority at the moment – so having NASA treed water on Constellation, and stopping Obama from killing NASA, is the best were going to get.

    Welcome to the 21st century..

    8(

  • Kelly Starks

    In a more philosophical mood. If congress does go with a commercial option, really the only two credible providers would be Boeing and L/M for the same reasons they won Orion/Ares. If you keep the same contract and NASA oversight rules – they’ll cost as much as Orion /AresHLV. If NASA gets to choose the design, it will look like Orion /AresHLV.

    Not what I’d choose. If your being reasonable a version of Boeings X-37b with crew carry would maker more sense – but congress doesn’t want to get that hands on enough to choose a design themselves, and NASA convinced them you need a Apollo style capsule and HLV to get beyond LEO. So…..

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