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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
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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.


Atlas 5 successfully puts NOAA weather satellite in orbit

ULA’s Atlas 5 rocket today successfully placed a NOAA weather satellite in orbit.

The leaders in the 2018 launch standings:

7 China
4 SpaceX
3 Japan
3 ULA
2 Russia

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

3 comments

  • Kirk

    Congrats ULA, NOAA, & NASA.

    Next US launch should be Hispasat on a Falcon 9 from the Cape. They were set to launch last weekend, but let it slip a few days to further check out the fairing. When they were finally confidant and ready to go they requested a 00:35 launch for last night / early Thursday morning, but were turned down. I understand that while the range would like to demonstrate their improved abilities to support two launches within 24 hours, it may have been pressure from ULA which led to the denial, as they were concerned about the effect a Falcon 9 early flight anomaly might have on their Atlas V waiting on the pad. (Sounds reasonable.)

    So you’d assume the Hispasat mission would launch soon, but no word yet on a new range date, and there are reports that the SpaceX navy is returning to Port Canaveral, so this suggests we are several days away. Recall since Hispasat weighs more than any other payload to GTO where the first stage was recovered, many observers expected this booster to be expended. But it was seen to be outfitted with legs and titanium grid fins for the static fire, and the ASDS OCISLY was towed out of Port Canaveral last Wednesday, so they appear to be attempting an experimental, extreme recovery for this mission.

  • Kirk

    Hispasat launch is now scheduled for early morning Tuesday 2018-03-06 at 00:33 EST. SpaceX Atlantic fleet remains in Port Canaveral. It will be interesting to see if they get underway into the heavy seas, or if they will remove the Ti grid fins from this booster and expend it.

  • Kirk

    Falcon 9 / Hispasat will launch from the Cape tonight after midnight, at 00:34 EST. F9 with payload is vertical on pad 40, with legs and titanium grid fins still in place. SpaceX Atlantic fleet is still in Port, with seas too rough from Winter Storm Riley to attempt an ASDS landing tonight. I suppose there still might be time to take the F9 horizontal and remove those pricey Ti grid fins. The conventional wisdom is that they are too expensive to waste on tests without a chance at recovery, but perhaps will do so.

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