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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


China plans first commercial rocket company

The competition heats up: A Chinese company has announced plans to start a new commercial rocket company to compete for the burgeoning space launch market.

China Sanjiang Space Group Co. is preparing to enter the commercial-rocket business with a launch slated for 2017, Xinhua reported Tuesday, citing the company’s chief engineer Hu Shengyun. Some Internet companies have expressed interest in collaborating on commercial launches, Hu said.

The Kuaizhou-11, translated as “fast vessel,” rocket is being developed by the Fourth Academy of China Aerospace Science & Industry Corp., a major missile supplier to the People’s Liberation Army, according to China Daily.

There is not much information at the link. The rocket was first launched in 2013, but not much has been revealed about it since.

Readers!

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

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3 comments

  • Tell me again why many in the US are clamoring for a centralized command economy, while the ChiComs are moving toward a free market system.

  • Edward

    Short answer:
    Some people want to be in control (or be controlled), and other people want success and prosperity. For the Chinese, its former rulers (e.g. Mao) wanted the control. For the current mob, they want more prosperity than in the past.

    Long answer:
    Some Americans want the control, and think that they can have both control and prosperity (e.g. they believe that socialism will work in America, or will work only after a capitalist system generates enough prosperity to make it seem to work), but this is an impossibility, because socialism deters hard work, and encourages each worker to expect the government to give him his prosperity. From each according to his ability (or willingness to work harder than the next guy); to each according to his need (and the left over productivity goes to the leadership). This is the lesson of the Pilgrims at the Plymouth Colony. They proved that socialism does not work, even in America, but that capitalism does. Their survival and prosperity under the capitalist system, after nearly half of them perished under Bradford’s socialist experiment, was the real reason for the first Thanksgiving.

    The problem is that many people are not learning the lesson of Bradford’s Plymouth Colony.

    Capitalism encourages hard work, ingenuity, and talent and requires that each worker make someone else a little more prosperous in order to become a little more prosperous himself. It is better for 300 million people to figure out how they each can make a little more prosperity for someone else than it is for a few central controllers to figure it out. The individuals are motivated and can rapidly adapt, while central controllers make sure that they prosper whether or not they succeed, and it takes months for them to get reports as to how well their efforts work (notice the US government’s various reports, such as employment; how they come out a month or two after the data is collected and how they are adjusted over time, to boot!).

  • Wayne

    Edward!

    Excellent commentary!

    >>Blair has a very interesting Blog. Check it out if you have some time.

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