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Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent independent analysis you don’t find elsewhere. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn’t influenced by donations by established companies or political movements. 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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February 2, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

 

  • European startup The Exploration Company raises $44 million to develop reusable spacecraft
  • They hope to do fly a small demo prototype this year. Jay describes the future planned fullscale spacecraft: “The vehicle is called Nyx, I guess it was named after the Greek Goddess of the night. From the article: ‘Nyx would be able to send 4,000 kilograms to orbit for up to six months, and bring 2,600 kilograms back down for 20,000 euros per kilogram.'”

 

 

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

2 comments

  • James Street

    Apparently U.S. General Minihan warned that the U.S. should prepare for war with China. Americans on the godless Chicom commies’ payroll immediately called him a war monger and said he was declaring war on China. This article explains why he wasn’t and also gave a good summary of some of the problems China is facing. The bullet points are quotations I lifted from the article.

    Centralized economies always collapse.

    Predicting and preparing for war
    February 2, 2023
    Gen. Michael A. Minihan is getting some flak for his remarks on possible war with China. Here’s what he really said.
    • There are, in addition, economic and population concerns. China’s economy is facing long-term problems, including COVID, the collapse of the real estate market, and declining overseas investment in technology companies. Peak growth was 14.2 percent in 2007.
    • China’s “one child” policy that began in the 1970s created a demographic disconnect — not only fewer people, but a preponderance of males over females — that has remained. In 2020, it was estimated that there were 30 million more men than women in China.
    • A population that is both aging and declining is a security concern as well as economic one.
    • China analyst Dan Wang told the Epoch Times in an interview that China’s growth relies on import and export trade, which, while good during the first part of 2022, deteriorated significantly in the second half.
    • The consensus now is that the economy will continue to shrink in 2023. My view is, it’s going to be messy.
    • Couple the economic difficulties with the lack of potential partners with the requirement that young people support their aging parents, and you have an unstable society. An unstable society could very well be a revolutionary society — Xi’s greatest fear.
    https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2023/02/predicting_and_preparing_for_war.html

  • Ray Van Dune

    You can bet Xi is watching how the Russians perform in the upcoming Spring Offensive. Taiwan or Siberia, that is the question?

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