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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.


August 23, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay, and posted early today because Diane and I will be out having dinner with friends this evening.

 

 

 

 

 

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

5 comments

  • David Eastman

    I’ve seen it said that Blue Origin is now producing BE-4 engines at a rate of 12 per year, and that there is a New Glenn flight booster on the factory floor in their facility at the Cape. I’m not sure I believe that they really are building 12 flight-ready engines per year, and even if so, that’s barely enough to keep up with projected Vulcan use, with nothing left for New Glenn. As to the booster in the factory, there have certainly been photos of a booster under construction in there, but all you can say is “yep, there’s a big cylinder of steel standing in there.” Who knows at what stage or progress it’s in. Given the speed Blue has been running at, I would expect at least a year from first sighting of that thing in the open to it actually flying.

  • Ian C.

    Slightly off-topic, but since we’re posting X/Twitter links:

    Donald Trump. Tucker Carlson.
    Debate Night in Bedminster
    8:55pm ET

    https://x.com/TuckerCarlson

  • ” . . . and appears to be an attempt to repeat its failed orbital launch attempt from May.”

    I do not think they are planning on failing.

  • Blair Ivey: Thank you. I have revised the sentence.

  • Edward

    David Eastman wrote: “I’ve seen it said that Blue Origin is now producing BE-4 engines at a rate of 12 per year, and that there is a New Glenn flight booster on the factory floor in their facility at the Cape. I’m not sure I believe that they really are building 12 flight-ready engines per year, and even if so, that’s barely enough to keep up with projected Vulcan use, with nothing left for New Glenn.

    Considering that a month or two ago the report was that Blue Origin was at a rate of two per quarter (8 per year) and a year ago they could almost deliver their first engine to ULA, it seems to me that the company is successfully ramping up production and will soon be able to supply ULA’s needs for their Vulcan rockets and its own needs for New Glenn.

    Once New Glenn is operational, Blue Origin can focus on its other projects.

    A few months ago I had expressed that I thought Bezos may have failed at turning around Blue Origin. I may have been premature in my assessment.

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