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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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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.


Investors sue Virgin Galactic for stock fraud

Capitalism in space: A federal complaint has been filed against Virgin Galactic, claiming the company made false and misleading reports concerning its financial state.

Investor Shane Levin and other unnamed plaintiffs claim in their complaint that Virgin Galatic CEO Michael Colglazier, former CEO George Whitesides, CFO Doug Ahrens and former CFO Jon Campagna knowingly presented incorrect financial statements to inflate the company’s stock price and entice buyers.

The lawsuit is seeking class-action status and unspecified damages, in addition to legal fees.

Also today an anonymous source claimed that, assuming Virgin Galactic can get FAA approval, the company has suddenly changed its test flight schedule and is now planning to fly Richard Branson on its SpaceShipTwo Unity spacecraft on July 4th. This would have Branson reach suborbital space about two weeks ahead of Jeff Bezos, who is presently scheduled to fly on a suborbital flight his own New Shepard spacecraft on July 20th.

Branson for almost two decades has promised he would fly on the first commercial operational flight of SpaceShipTwo, while also promising repeatedly that this flight was only months away. All of those promises were bunkum. Now faced with Jeff Bezos grabbing that first flight, Branson is suddenly scrambling to finally get it done, even if it means disrupting Virgin Galactic’s already announced test schedule.

The first story above tells us something about the honesty of Virgin Galactic’s finances. The second story tells us something about the trustworthiness of its management and engineering. I might consider the pace of Blue Origin in the past five years to have been far too slow, but they have at least shown a careful deliberate path to flight. Bezos’ July 20th flight might be a stunt, but it is being done to demonstrate his trust in his product.

Not so much from Branson and Virgin Galactic. For Branson, feeding his ego seems more important.

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

  • concerned

    I thought Sir Richard was supposed to take his family along on his first joyride. What happened to those plans?

  • Jeff Wright

    I’m surprised the suit took this long.

  • Col Beausabre

    About time !

  • Jay

    Interesting. Branson sold his personal shares of Virgin Galactic last year for over $500 million. Branson is still the head of the Virgin Group which owns a one third share of this subsidiary – Virgin Galactic.
    I know that subsidiaries are created to protect the parent company from liabilities. I guess this is a question for a business lawyer, but can they go after Branson for the past sales of stock if these falsified numbers are true?

  • What law firm is handling the Class Action Suite against Virgin Galatic and Richard Branson for fraud? I am 76 and have lost over $40,000becasue of the deflated SPCE stock. I want to be of the suite filed by Shane Levin. I am getting no where. I have the case # 21-cv-03070. I keep going down one Rabbit Trail after another.

    In the kindness of on of your hearts can you tell me how to find out the Law Firm handling this case of how to contact Shane Levin, it would be well appreciated.

    Cordially yours, David NuHavun 315-372-3024…Syracuse, N.Y.

  • David NuHavun: Some information on the New York lawsuit can be found here\

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-07/judge-says-virgin-galactic-investors-can-continue-branson-suit?leadSource=uverify%20wall

    This story involves Kusnier v Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc, 21-cv-3070, US District Court for the Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

    Information about the Shane Livin lawsuit can be found here:

    https://parabolicarc.com/2021/12/19/class-action-lawsuit-filed-against-virgin-galactic-alleging-securities-fraud/

    It appears you are spelling Shane Lavin’s name wrong, which might be part of your difficulty locating the case. Lavin’s actual complain can be found here [pdf].

    It lists the plantiff’s attorneys as:

    BRONSTEIN, GEWIRTZ & GROSSMAN, LLC
    Peretz Bronstein
    60 East 42nd Street, Suite 4600
    New York, New York 10165
    Telephone: (212) 697-6484

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