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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.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

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Upcoming Event: The impact of the Ukraine War on the global space industry

9:23 am

LAST CALL: If you wish to watch this event via Zoom or in person you need to comment below. I will then email you the log in information or the location details in Tucson of the event.

Original post:
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On the evening of Tuesday, April 5, 2022, I will be one of three panelists discussing the overall global impact of the Ukraine War on the world’s space industry at another Arizona Space Business Roundtable event in Tucson.

The panelists will be, in speaking order:

Robert Zimmerman: The impact on Russia and the Ukraine space industries
Alex Rodriguez: The impact on the world’s space-related defense and military industries
Stephen Fleming [moderator]: The impact on the rest of the world’s commercial space industries

My readers know who I am.

Alex Rodriguez has worked for Vector and now with Freefall 5G. In the late 1990s, as an Action Officer inside the Pentagon’s J-5 Directorate for Strategic Plans and Policy of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Alex worked directly on the first round of NATO enlargement in both the Executive Branch and as subsequent detailee on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that authorized the ratification of NATO enlargement.

Stephen Fleming, who founded the Arizona Space Business Roundtable, made seed or early-stage investments in over a dozen aerospace companies, including XCOR Aerospace, ICON Aircraft, Nanoracks, RBC Signals, Vector, Freefall, and Phantom Launch. He was also one of the founding investors in the Space Angels Network.

After we each describe the ramifications of the war in these three areas, the room will be opened to Q&A from the audience.

The event will begin at 5:20 pm (Pacific), and likely last until 6:30 pm, though if the discussion is lively we will certainly go on longer.

This is a public event in Tucson, being held jointly by the Arizona Space Business Roundtable and the Arizona Technology Council. It will also be broadcast online.

If you want to attend via Zoom, you will need to express your interest as a comment below, and I will then email you the Zoom url and password. We are not publishing this information publicly to avoid a hacking during the event.

If you wish to come in person please comment below as well and I will then forward you the location. The event is open to the public but I wish to do it this way so that the organizers will have a reasonably accurate estimate of the number of attendees, for planning purposes.

Note that I have written these essays previously about other Arizona Space Business Roundtable events:

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

17 comments

17 comments

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