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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.


Richard Branson manipulates the press again

Two stories today from Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic:

The quote from the first story is especially entertaining:

“I’m pretty convinced that by this summer a large, new spacecraft will go into space,” the Virgin Galactic owner said in an interview with Fusion.net, adding, “and then I think by September, myself and my family will go into space. I’m 90 percent convinced that will happen.”

This article, however, was written by a local New Mexico news source, which is understandably very skeptical of Branson considering that he has made this exact same promise now three years in a row. Not only has Branson and his family not flown in space as promised previously, almost no powered test flights of SpaceShipTwo have occurred as promised.

Eventually, you have got to produce. Branson’s failure to fulfill his previous promises makes this new promise sound very hollow. I think he would be far better served right now if he told us precisely what is going on and why there have been so few test flights. This is cutting edge technology. Everyone expects there to be problems, challenges, and delays. Filling us in on them will not embarrass Branson or Virgin Galactic, unless we find out he has been lying to us.

I should also note that Branson’s effort here to manipulate the press is apparently far less successful than past efforts. Previously, promises of an upcoming SpaceShipTwo suborbital flight would have gotten wide starry-eyed coverage from major news sources. Space geeks like I would have talked about it as well with great enthusiasm.

Now, however, the story is reported first by a non-space source, and subsequent reports, like the one above, are skeptical.

Time is running out on Virgin Galactic. They have got to start delivering.

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

One comment

  • Pzatchok

    Branson is a carnival barker like old.

    I was thinking about his space system and a thought hit me about it.(which is rare)

    He must be planning on launching his rocket from any airport in the world.
    But really he can’t. Technically yes he can, but not so much in the real world.
    First he wants to launch from places close to the people that are buying his tickets.
    Well anyone buying would come from a pretty advanced nation. One with a modern air force. A modern air force needs liquid O2. So does his spacecraft at least for some breathing.
    His ship needs an oxidizer like hydrogen peroxide. Which needs a pretty modern nation to manufacture.
    It also needs a fuel. His fuel idea is I guess fine, if he plans of shipping it around the world on cargo ships.
    Why not use the very same or a very similar liquid fuel like the jet fuel every other modern aircraft uses? And use the very same O2 he plans to use for breathing for his oxidizer?

    Buy off of the local markets.

    Its not like he plans on launching from a dirt strip in inner Mongolia or from a jungle runway in South America.

    I don’t think he actually has much of a real plan other than a plan to spend other peoples money and gain press time for himself and his company name.
    Sort of like advertising.

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