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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
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

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.


October 19, 2021 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts.

To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, well worth your time, go here.

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

4 comments

  • Sam

    Just a tiny correction – Monaco (home to the late Prince Rainier and his wife Grace Kelly and Monte Carlo gambling) is located between Italy and France on the French Riviera – certainly not Africa (Morocco maybe?)

  • Sam: Gosh, you are right! I was confusing Monaco with Morocco. Duh. Unfortunately, I can’t fix the podcast. That’s set in stone.

    Thank you regardless.

  • Mark

    Regarding Bob’s discussion with John Batchelor on the Chinese Hypersonic story, Bob expresses his skepticism to a large radio audience.

    Upon further review of sources outside of Behind the Black, I am now in agreement with Bob that this Hypersonic Flight story was a deep fake from the deep state with an assist from British intelligence who have a reputation for their literary creativity.

    Bob comments to Batchelor that the reason behind the story is probably that the military is trying to get more funding. While it’s true that there are other occasions in the past where the military has used ‘stories’ to lobby for more funding, in this Hypersonic story that is not what is happening behind the scenes and Bob is wrong to promote that theory.

    The US military has a phenomenal amount of funding, and more importantly Classified military spending accounts for more than 10 percent of the overall defense budget, and I’ll let you figure out the implications of that fact.

    Bob is missing the much bigger picture which is that after decades long government pronouncements embracing the ‘Peaceful Rise of China’, we now have to turn that very large ship around. The US intelligence services know the full story behind the Wuhan Lab leak and China’s actions to use that as part of their undeclared war on the United States. But the US cannot tell the world this story in full because Dr. Fauci abetted the creation of COVID 19 with his funding of the gain of function research. So the US Government together with our allies now have to push stories to play up the threat from China. The ‘facts’ behind some of these may be spot on while others will be murky.

    As a good journalist Mr. Z is following the facts of the Hypersonic Story.
    But let’s not miss the bigger story. We are at war and the American public has to be prepared for that. A Gray Zone War is still War, and Propaganda is one of the unsavory tools used. I know that Behind the Black is focused on Space, but don’t forget China is planning for War in Space just as they planned for Biological War (although they probably started that one accidentally). So i ask my fellow Space enthusiasts to put in some effort to understand our enemy’s aims in Space. The link below has the 116 page report on the Chinese Space Program from the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

    Link to the report: https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-05/China_Space_and_Counterspace_Activities.pdf

    I don’t expect anyone to read the whole thing, but it would only take a few minutes to peruse the Table of Contents, and read over the Key Findings and Conclusions.
    We need to be prepared, and we need to help our fellow Americans understand that China is a ‘Present Danger’.

  • wayne

    Tony Stark Monaco Race Scene
    https://youtu.be/jfI786z4uyw
    3:57

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