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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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China’s Long March 6 launches two military technology test satellites

Using its Long March 6 rocket, China yesterday successfully placed two military technology test satellites into orbit, designed to test “new interference suppression technology for Ka-band mobile communications satellites.”

The launch occurred at one of China’s interior spaceports. No word on whether the rocket’s first stage crashed near habitable area.

The leaders in the 2021 launch race:

25 China
20 SpaceX
12 Russia
3 Northrop Grumman
3 Rocket Lab

The U.S. still leads China 30 to 25 in the national rankings.

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

8 comments

  • Matt in AZ

    Bob, assuming all goes well with the upcoming SpaceX Starship flight, will its purposeful re-entry before a complete orbit rule it out from this list?

  • Matt in AZ: Y’know, that’s a great question that I had not thought of. I think if the flight is successful and Starship lands as intended, I will include it, as the only reason they aren’t going to orbit is I think for testing purposes. If it makes it to its targeted landing point it will mean it could have just as easily completed a full orbit.

    I am open of course to suggestions. What say my readers?

  • geoffc

    @RobertZ: So the SN20 flight is not supposed to be a complete orbit. The question is, do they hit the needed altitude, and speed for orbit.

    Even if they do not land, since it is not clear they plan to land the upper stage, rather just reenter, get the data. Ocean seems to be the target and unclear if they will have something to land on underneath it.

    All of which is to say, as much as I want it to count, I would vote for probably no.

  • William F

    I think you should keep strict criteria. Otherwise Lex Luthor will want you to count every amusement park ride on Blue Origin

  • mkent

    It all depends upon whether Starship makes orbit. If it makes orbit but brakes out of orbit before completing a single revolution, I will count it in my records. If it remains on a suborbital though long trajectory, I will not.

    I count Yuri Gagarin’s flight as an orbital flight because he made orbit, though he did not complete a single revolution with his craft. ICBM flights are suborbital trajectories even if they are intercontinental, so they don’t count.

  • Mark

    How strong is the possibility that the Chinese military test satellites are designed to test new interference tech against US military communications? Wonder what US Space Command thinks?

  • Jeff Wright

    With Northrup and RocketLab having 3 each…added to Musk gives me 26 launches of any size. What are the other 4? I would not count air launchs for anything less than than a Stratolaunch release…but I would count Starship as second stage. Tons to orbital velocity is what I would go by.

  • Jeff Wright: Virgin Orbit and ULA have two each. They don’t have enough to make the leader board.

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