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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.


Another successful Falcon 9 launch

The competition heats up: SpaceX has successfully completed its fifth Falcon 9 launch of the year, putting a Turkmenistan’s first communications satellite into orbit.

This was the 18th consecutive successful launch for the Falcon 9, and the 13th in a row for its upgraded design. Not bad for a company that did not even exist a little more than a decade ago.

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

  • PeterF

    when does the booster come down? Will this be an attempt at a launchpad return?

  • The booster came down immediately, mere minutes after launch, crashing in the ocean. Because this mission was to put a heavier communications satellite in high geosynchronous orbit (24,000 miles high), not low Earth orbit, they needed all the first stage fuel for doing that. No attempt was made to land the first stage.

    Their next first stage landing attempt is likely to be in June, during the next Dragon launch.

  • Frank

    With every successful launch their dependability and reliability reputation grows. The engineering is solid, costs are low, and the new ideas are fun to watch, but their business will grow because they can be depended on to deliver payloads into space on schedule. This is how its done.

  • Matt in AZ

    I was fortunate enough to witness this launch, coinciding with my visit to KSC that Monday. I’ve been wanting to see such a thing since I was a little kid, and that’s sure taken care of! The following video was taken by someone nearby – it actually captures the sound of the launch rather well (especially if you crank the volume, lol).

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MM7G0fxLlPU

  • You were very close. When I saw the next to last shuttle launch, we were much farther away.

  • Matt in AZ

    Looking at a map, it turns out I was further away from the filmer than I thought, with a 5.5-mile view at the Saturn-V exhibit. Still pretty awesome.

    There’s a lot of interesting things going on at KSC. One of the mobile launch pads has a tall Saturn-V-style tower mounted for the SLS (and perhaps other rockets?). Pad 39B is almost completely cleared of structures, with construction ongoing. Pad 39A still has its tower, with some shuttle-specific gear still visible, but now has a large horizontal hangar being built by SpaceX for the Falcon Heavy. It’s surprisingly close by to the pad, just outside its perimeter fence.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/musematt11/17215140730/

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/musematt11/16782449193/

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacexphotos/16872836499/

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