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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.

 

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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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South Korea’s new Nuri rocket fails during first launch

The new colonial movement: South Korea’s new Nuri rocket, that country’s first homegrown rocket, failed during launch early today when the payload did not reach its proper orbit.

It appears that the third stage shut down prematurely.

They plan to try again in May ’22.

For a first launch attempt this was actually a large success. Getting the first and second stages to work properly is generally the hardest part of any rocket launch.

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

3 comments

  • Mark

    I applaud any and all Space Technology advances from the 12 countries that are part of the Artemis Accords.

    Below are the Artemis Countries. I listed them in order from high to low in regards to their present Space Tech capabilities based from what I’ve read here on BtB. Let me know if you would rank differently.

    * United States
    * Japan
    * Republic of Korea
    * United Kingdom
    * Italy
    * Canada
    * New Zealand
    * Australia
    * Ukraine
    * Brazil
    * UAE
    * Luxembourg

    Hopefully we’ll see India joining this year also.

  • David Eastman

    The reporting on this has been awful, with some articles saying “didn’t reach orbit” and others saying “reached orbit, but not the correct one.” It looks like the latter answer is correct, and a lot of reporters just not realizing that there is a distinction to be made.

    The KSLV-II is an interesting launcher, it looks like they set themselves a design goal of something reasonable for their first launcher, and then made every attempt to keep it simple and cheap. Hopefully they’ll find some good customers for it to support their program going forward to bigger and better things.

  • David Eastman: From what I have gathered, it reached orbit but one so low that it has or will very quickly decay and burn up. This I think is what has led to the confusion.

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