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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.

 

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Biden fires Boeing on SLS; gives job to Acme

In an interesting announcement today, the Biden administration fired Boeing as the prime contractor for SLS and gave the job to a well-known southwest company dubbed Acme.

Anticipating critical comment, White House spokesmen pointed out that Acme had a long history of use of solid-fuel rockets for crewed applications, “without loss of human life or serious injury” despite some less-than-fatal mishaps.

…The spokesperson also added, “It should be noted that Acme’s products have never killed anybody. Unfortunately the same can’t be said for Boeing.”

Before you comment, make sure you read the article at the link closely, and also click on the two links in the article to get some detailed background on Acme, from some original sources.

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

20 comments

  • Ron Desmarais

    I had to check to see if today was April 1st not March 1st :-)

  • Jay

    Ron,
    I did the same thing!

  • Lazarus Long

    I saw that coming a mile away. Reminded me of –

    “Acme Aerospace poster” (google it)

  • Thank you for your speedy, fast-breaking news coverage. I’m sure it will not blow up in your face. Or move so fast you go over the cliff. Or…

  • Ray Van Dune

    Late breaking: the mystery of the selection of ACME despite its lack of aerospace credentials may have been solved. Apparently the well-known company Blue Origin has purchased the ACME brand, seeking to leverage the thousands of (short) ACME flights to bolster the meager BO portfolio. The Board of the new company will consist of Sen. R. Shelby, J. Bezos, and renowned test pilot W. E. Coyote. Despite attempts by Coyote, industry acceleration specialist R. Runner (birdus velocitas) could not be reached for comment beyond the obligatory “meep-meep”.

  • Jerry E Greenwood

    You’re a month early! That having been said which of the maj. Networks will run with this got to be the first!

  • Spectrum Shift

    Has Biden been watching Saturday morning cartoons again?

  • Call Me Ishmael

    “without loss of human life or serious injury”

    Rampant speciesism! Coyote Lives Matter!

  • Col Beausabre

    This is actually used as a teaching tool in various law schools

    https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1990/02/26/coyote-v-acme

  • john

    It’s still not going to work.

  • Alton

    Lol. I needed that boost!!!

  • wayne

    “Road Runner Theme– Live”
    Barbara Cameron (1926–2013)
    The Cape Coral Jazz Festival.
    (jazz arrangement by Doug Cameron)
    https://youtu.be/2jtwgg5vEaE
    2:40

  • Problem is, ACME has a reputation for leaving their customers hanging …

    … in midair. Next to a cliff.

  • On a related note … had not the Karens of the 1970’s discouraged the viewing of the classic Warner Bros. cartoons, our younger generations would have seen how Wile E’s cousin Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog strike the right balance between on-the-clock confrontation and off-the-clock civility.

    Seeing that might have dissuaded our younger folks from embracing cancel culture.

  • wayne

    Jester–
    (off to the races!)
    Good stuff!

    My Grand Unification Theory on all this– we’ve reached a point in our Country where there is a distinct lack of what I generically call “shared cultural experiences.” (not to mention a general fuzziness on our history) ((the opposite of herd-immunity, so to speak…)) Now, these darn Fools want to drag us all under, like ‘camping forever,’ but with no camping equipment.

    going way tangential, just cuz’ it’s a well done piece of film:

    The American Rocketeer (2010)
    Frank Malina, Theodore von Kármán, and the history of JPL
    https://youtu.be/jlNz634TjN0
    1:29:24

  • Jester Naybor: Second Wayne’s comment.

  • Jeff Wright

    Wile E. was my hero. I could identify with his bad luck.
    Salieri was my other hero from Amadeus.

    And did I ever hate that bird.
    If you go by Hunter Thompson-he got his in the end.

  • David Telford

    Got a woodpecker working the house. I’m looking for a giant bear trap. Nothing goes wrong with those! But I don’t see that on the Illustrated Catalog by Acme.

  • t-dub

    My favorite ACME product is the Earthquake Pills. A classic episode, one of the funniest ever made imho.

  • Jeff Wright

    My favorite was when he was after Bugs Bunny, and his magnet pulled in the huge rocket-but the Grammatica moment of the Starship failure had more of that ACME vibe:-) almost-but not quite.

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