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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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Boeing sets Dec 17 for launch of unmanned Starliner

Capitalism in space: Boeing officials today announced that they are targeting December 17 as the date they will launch their Starliner capsule to ISS for its first unmanned demo flight.

The article also says they are have set November 4 for their pad abort test of the capsule.

If both are completed successfully they will be ready for their manned demo launch to ISS.

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

  • Col Beausabre

    If this goes according to schedule, this puts them marginally ahead of SpaceX, whose abort test is scheduled for the third week of December. I don’t think the December 17th date is coincidental – it will drown out its rival’s test. It will be intertesting to see if Musk causes the schedule to be radically revised – we’re dealing with BIG egos here. As a rail enthusiast, I’m inevitably reminded by the rivalry between the Pennsylvania and New York Central lines – if one announced a faster schedule New York-Chicago, the other matched it, with the same effective date. This should be entertaining!

  • Questioner

    Boeing should give up its extreme expensive and outdated rocket production methods and take SpaceX’s starship as an example. However, there even example of companies, which may help to produce Musk’s starship more efficient, faster and with higher quality.

    [detected at NSF]

    Building Stainless Steel Tanks on Location

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=98&v=w-ARF26P2rI

    BTW, Musk says that later Raptor engine will cost only 250,000 dollar a piece, which means that all engines for SH/SS (>40 engines) will cost not more as one SLS RS-25D/E engine!

  • Brian

    Bob you mentioned the pad abort test Nov 4 and the unmanned flight to the ISS Dec 17, but I believe Boeing has to do a flight abort test before they can fly a manned flight to ISS. Spacex has there flight abort test scheduled for mid Dec, if successful, after that they will be ready for there first manned flight to ISS

  • mkent

    I believe Boeing has to do a flight abort test before they can fly a manned flight to ISS.

    No, they don’t. Their sequence is pad abort–>unmanned test–>manned test–>six operational flights. Boeing’s manned test will be an extended flight lasting several months.

  • Brian

    mkent, You are correct after some more research, Boeing has chose not to do an inflight abort test, because they are not required to do one, and Spacex is not either, but they chose to do one anyway.

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