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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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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.


China launches military test satellite

The new colonial movement: China yesterday completed its first launch in 2022, using its Long March 2D rocket to launch a military test satellite into orbit.

No word on where the first stage crashed in the interior of China, or whether it used parachutes or grid fins to control its landing.

The 2022 launch race:

2 SpaceX
1 Virgin Orbit
1 China

These numbers should change later today, as SpaceX has a Falcon 9 Starlink launch scheduled. UPDATE: The SpaceX Starlink launch has been delayed one day to tomorrow.

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

  • BtB’s Original Mark

    I’ve noticed that the US China Space Race is recently receiving attention in mainstream political press. For example:

    https://www.politico.com/news/2021/12/31/2022-space-race-china-us-526271

    I suggest that we use each Chinese launch as an opportunity to highlight the dangers of a CCP led China.

    For more information on the conventional, ideological, and existential threats emanating from the CCP, check out the website of the Committee on the Present Danger: China.

    https://presentdangerchina.org/

    In addition, we can slow financial flows to China by supporting those politicians that support economic decoupling. Here is an op-Ed by Senate candidate David McCormick:

    https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/americas-leaders-chinas-communist-party-dave-mccormick

    Actions speak louder than words.

  • William

    I hope US private launches accelerate this year making it impossible for China to keep up.

  • Jeff Wright

    That’s going to be tough for two reasons…China has committed itself to space as a nation where our NASA bills are empty Trojan horses-which leads me to point two-American spaceflight’s real enemy is domestic…ESG Hound is at Parabolic Arc again. Maybe on sue origin’s dime?

    He’s going to push too far to where someone just might poison every plover and turtle the via the ‘shoot, shovel and shut up’ method.

    So the very thing the Hound of the Muskervilles/Muskovites fears will be done by night for the sake of spite.

    All burning ivorys and pelts ever did was INCREASE their demand…with the same bush pilots flying documentary filmakers in also flying out contraband up under those eco-tourist seats. The surest way to see some animal go extinct? “Protect” it.

    Bob-you are going on the Space Show tonight-maybe you could explain this to ESG Hound?

    China keeps us on our toes, SLS employs Americans-but it is Unabomber Hound who deserves your oil of vitriol the most.

  • Cotour

    CCP / China, the facade:

    https://youtu.be/gTPFdJQlm0k

    Remember the ghost cities?

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