To read this post please scroll down.

 

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.


An expedition financed by Jeff Bezos has recovered two Saturn 5 F-1 engines from the ocean bottom.

An expedition financed by Jeff Bezos has recovered two Apollo-era Saturn 5 F-1 engines from the ocean bottom.

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

6 comments

  • That would be the coolest living room display ever.

  • Steve mac

    Wow! at ~12 ‘diameter, and 18 feet tall you’ve a pretty impressive living room.

  • jwing

    I’m surprised NASA doesn’t claim them and ask Jeff to return them to Cape Canaveril. They do that for all other Apollo related artifacts.

  • I’m sure the founder of Amazon.com could find the room.

  • US admiralty law is rife with contradictions, but my understanding is that a) the derelict is not within the territorial waters of the US (so the 1987 Abandoned Shipwreck Act doesn’t apply), and b) the original owner (US government) has so effectively abandoned the derelict so as to quit claim on it. The last part depends on act and intent. It’s demonstrable that the government never intended to recover the engines, as they were part of a disposable rocket stage, and have lain at the bottom of the ocean for 40+ years. The US government has also never acted to recover any part of the Saturn vehicle except the crew capsule. This is why Mel Fisher, for example, couldn’t just snag a Shuttle SRB and claim salvage.

    I’m sure Mr. Bezos consulted with maritime counsel before undertaking the expedition, but it’s very cool that we may have the opportunity to see a flown F-1 engine.

  • jwing

    Thanks for the imformative reply. Your’re right on the mark since NASA is currently charged with muslim outreach anyway, and it really doesn’t have the time or money (sequestration) to badger Bezos about fishing out those nasty polluting, CO2 producing space garbage rusting on the bottom of the Atlantic. :)

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *