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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


Bezos and Blue Origin to star in animated kids show

If you can’t build anything, than draw it! Jeff Bezos and his space company Blue Origin are now set to star in a kids animated show called “Blue Origins Space Rangers”.

The children’s series will feature the voices of Bezos, who founded his space tourism business Blue Origin in 2000, as well as “Good Morning America” co-host Michael Strahan, who was a passenger in December 2021 on Blue Origin NS-19 on a 10-minute spaceflight. Bezos took his supersonic joy ride to space in July 2021.

Nor is this the only show that Blue Origin is part of. A feature film set to release in 2023 will feature Blue Origin’s proposed (but not yet built) Orbital Reef space station.

All of this is fun and good, but it once again raises a question of focus. Is Bezos and Blue Origin really focused on building rockets and space stations, or it is mostly a pr operation for Bezos to sell himself? The overall lack of progress on its real rockets and space stations suggests the latter.

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15 comments

  • M Puckett

    *cringe*

  • sippin_bourbon

    More like “Blue Origin Space Strangers”, am I right?
    I mean.. they have to at least get there…

  • Jay

    For the love of….

    I bet they have a robot named BE-4!

  • pzatchok

    The next Branson and Virgin.

  • Boobah

    I thought Branson’s/Virgin Galactic’s problem was government foot dragging on permission to use their proposed launch site. Maybe I missed a half dozen stories about Blue Origin being tangled up in red tape? Lord knows most of my attention is in other directions.

  • Boobah: Blue Origin has had no problems with government bureaucracy, as yet. You are confusing the launch site issue with problems SpaceX has had getting approvals for both its Starship launchpads in Texas and Florida.

    You see, Bezos is a Democratic Party player, while Musk is now hated by the Democrats. This fact alone will tell you who is having problems with a foot-dragging government.

  • I should add that in my comment below, I was only referring to the U.S. In the UK, Virgin Orbit is having government problems getting a launch approved.

  • Ray Van Dune

    Solution to VO UK launch problem: publicly announce they are giving up, take off to fly home, “accidentally” launch rocket over Atlantic, keep on going.

  • pzatchok

    VO has been in operation for well over ten years and has placed exactly one ship into space and that was just barely. It was not in anyway even orbital.

    BO is going the very same way. They have one operational pogo ship and nothing more, and it is falling way short of all proposed launch rates.

  • pzatchok: Virgin Orbit has successfully completed four orbital launches, not one, and all four have occurred in the past two years. When it was first separated from Virgin Galactic I correctly predicted it would fly commercially before Virgin Galactic.

    Whether it can compete with the many other new rocket companies is an unknown, but overall its management and engineering has not been a failure.

  • pzatchok

    VG failed totally

    The fact that they found a small portion of it to save was surprising. But compared to its own competitors its not equal.

  • Jeff Wright

    This is horrible news-as this only re-enforces the kiddy space-cadet stereotype…adding to the giggle factor we have been trying to shake for decades:

    “Grow up!” -my parents would shriek….it is the main reason I want space to employ as many-to stifle such sentiments-and repair the damage Bezos has done in sliming us with the ‘space-as-vanity-project’ image we have to live down.

  • Concerned

    Sippin-bourbon: More like “Blue Origin Space Strangers”,

    Perfect

    As for Brandon and Bezos, somewhere PT Barnum must be very proud.

  • Edward

    I think that Robert is right. The problem is not that children are going to become excited about space through a children’s show (how many of us became excited in a similar way?), but the problem is that Bezos has taken charge of Blue Origin, and if he has not fixed its operations and culture by now, then maybe the company is doomed to be unsuccessful.

    Bezos took charge a year and a half ago, and it doesn’t take much longer than this to make a difference in a company. If the company isn’t running well by now, then Bezos is not the right person to fix it. Someone else will have to turn it into a company that can develop new rockets, engines, and space stations in a timely manner.

    On the other hand, if Bezos is not the right person to turn around the company, then maybe it isn’t such a bad thing that he is distracted and is turning his efforts into getting youngsters excited about space.

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