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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.
 

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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.


SpaceX successfully launches 49 Starlink satellites and a D-Orbit space tug

SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 49 Starlink satellites as well as a D-Orbit space tug carrying one of its own customer’s satellites from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

The first stage successfully completed its seventh flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific. The D-Orbit tug with its four payloads has also successfully deployed.

The 2023 launch race:

7 SpaceX
5 China
1 Rocket Lab
1 Japan

American private enterprise leads China 8 to 5 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 8 to 6.

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

5 comments

  • geoffc

    As the month closes, it is interesting to see how much of a dent, the Falcon Heavy took on SpaceX’s launch cadence. Those 7 flights, were 2 from Vandenberg, 1 from LC-39A, and 4 from SLC-40.

    The time it took to convert from 1 booster -> 3 booster -> Back to 1 booster config for the launch table, seems like it wasted most of the month. Since SLC-40 launched 4 times in the same period.

    If they want to hit 100 launches, seems like they need to skip the Falcon Heavy launches…

  • Ben

    Robert – Are you sure about the 7 launches for Space X? I counted 8 in Jan based on the Space X web site.

  • Ben: I post an update after every launch, and have reviewed the numbers. I haven’t missed anything.

    What I suspect is that SpaceX might be counting the Falcon Heavy launch twice, assuming their count is counting the number of boosters that have returned.

  • Edward

    Robert:
    SpaceX reports:
    https://www.spacex.com/launches/

    8) JANUARY 31, 2023: STARLINK MISSION
    7) JANUARY 26, 2023: STARLINK MISSION
    6) JANUARY 19, 2023: STARLINK MISSION
    5) JANUARY 18, 2023: GPS III SPACE VEHICLE 06 MISSION
    4) JANUARY 15, 2023: USSF-67 MISSION (Flacon Heavy)
    3) JANUARY 11, 2023: CRS-26 RETURNS TO EARTH
    2) JANUARY 9, 2023: ONEWEB LAUNCH 16 MISSION
    1) JANUARY 3, 2023: TRANSPORTER-6 MISSION

    I believe that Ben confused the January 11 return of CRS-26 as a launch.

    On another note: 14 launches worldwide gives a trend for 168 launches in 2023, 84 as SpaceX and 60 as Chinese. I expect an increase in launch cadence through the course of the year.

    All this commercial activity makes this decade an exciting time to watch space activities. Almost as exciting as the 1960s, only the commercial aspect benefits all mankind, not just the governments active in the space race. This is the kind of space activity that we had hoped for half a century ago.

  • Ben

    Yup, my mistake. Edward is right, I saw the CRS 20 return listed with their launches.

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