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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.
 

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Billionaire Maezawa chooses his passengers for Starship lunar flight

Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa yesterday announced the eight passengers he will take with him on his private Starship flight around the Moon, its launch date still not set.

The full list of ten (including the two back-up passengers) is a wide mixture of individuals with a wide range of disciplines coming from a wide range of countries. For those interested in space, the one name that stood out and was very familiar was Tim Dodd, created of Everyday Astronaut. He created a video describing his selection as well as Maezawa’s entire project, which I have embedded below:

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

4 comments

  • Jerry Greenwood

    Congrats to Tim. I’m sure he’s ‘over the moon’ right now.

  • Edward

    Tim Dodd is an excellent choice. One of his strengths is that he is not an engineer, so when he explains something on his videos, he has researched it extremely thoroughly. That makes his willingness to do the research his strength in that area. Another of his strengths is his ability to explain things clearly. I expect him to produce many informative videos on the entire process and experience.

    Two others are filmmakers and two more are actors, so I expect great things from them over their careers. The photographer had better document the heck out of the whole thing, including the training, otherwise I will be disappointed in her as a choice. The musician, dancers, and athlete, if they fly, should likewise get creative about how to express their experiences.

    So far, the other civilian flights on Dragon have had technical goals. This one is strictly societal to the point of being touristy. I once worked in the same department as an astronaut (although not with him), and he said that after a flight all you have is your memories and photographs, so make many of both. It will be interesting to see how creative they are during the voyage.

    All the choices are entertainers, mostly artists of one type or another. They tell stories for a living. Even though Tim has already started telling his stories, I cannot wait to hear, read, or watch the stories. Dear Moon has also started with the stories, as we can now meet these new astronauts:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11hVwdl2S68&list=UULFnvMg1mBgLa_N5G1_6gnbIw&index=1

    https://www.youtube.com/@dearmoon2023

    Truly, we civilians want to know what it is like for civilians to go to the Moon. We want to live the dream, even if it is only vicariously.

  • Edward noted: “Truly, we civilians want to know what it is like for civilians to go to the Moon.”

    I thought Heinlein had covered that. It would be interesting to compare the actual experience with the imagined one.

  • Edward

    Since the government slow walked approvals so that SpaceX would not launch Starship 20 on Super Heavy 4 before SLS launched, we have to ponder whether Dear Moon will be allowed to fly before Artemis II. Isn’t it too bad that we have to wonder these things rather than think of it as a competition or a cooperation?

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