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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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SpaceX stacks Starship on Superheavy on orbital launchpad

Starship mounted by tower on Superheavy

Capitalism in space: SpaceX for the first time used the giant arms on the launch tower at its Boca Chica orbital launchpad to stack Starship on top of Superheavy, with the fully stacked giant rocket to act as a backdrop to Elon Musk’s update on the project scheduled for airing tonight at 8 pm (Central).

You can see a time lapse of the several hour process here.

The use of a launch tower to stack a rocket is apparently a first, and provides solid evidence that SpaceX’s plan to catch Superheavy with that tower and put it on the ground has a chance of success.

SpaceX has not yet announced how Musk’s presentation will be aired, but when this information is available I will embed it on Behind the Black.

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

8 comments

  • Typo alert: Last sentence: “embedded” should be “embed it.”

  • Michael McNeil: Typo fixed. Thank you.

  • JhonB

    I was suprised when I went to the web cam today and saw it. I have been waiting to see this for a while. I know they did it some months past, but took it down right away and I missed it. She’s a beauty…
    Ohhh, Nooo, am I allowed to say “She’s” Did I offend someone or make some one have to go to a safe space? (G)

  • Andi

    JhonB – It depends on what the rocket identifies as.

  • Questioner

    Congratulations: I didn’t expect these monster arms to be able to work with this level of precision. It would be interesting to find out how the alignment went in detail with which technical aids. The auxiliary arm seemed to play a role in this.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S65P4plylo4

  • Questioner

    A handful of heat shield tiles were expelled off when Ship 20 was placed on top of the booster 4. Just a little thing.

  • Michael

    JhonB

    While on a trip overseas I passed a coffee shop with a poster in the window explaining why ships were always referred to as “she”; about eight or nine reasons were given. I went in to see the proprietress – very nice lady (although clearly not Russian). I explained that while I agreed with the poster in general I did have one question. She asked me what the question was and I responded “why is ‘she’ referred to as a ‘Man-o-War’ “?

    The whole conversation ended in a few laughs and coffee.

  • Jeff Wright

    What gets me is how Starship-SuperHeavy looks to be the true heir to the B-36 Peacemaker….with Cena’s Suicide Squad character in the cockpit….saying the rest of aerospace history has now been retconned out of existence
    B-36 and Atlas had a baby Starship-and that’s all. SR-seventy-who? Shuttle-what?

    There was the Gooney Bird, the B-36, Atlas and SS/SH…and that’s it for the history books!

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