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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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Chinese launch yesterday set record for number of humans in space

The launch yesterday of three Chinese astronauts to that country’s Tiangong-3 space station established a new record, seventeen, for the number of humans in space.

The launch of the next crew to China’s Tiangong space station late Monday (U.S. time) added three astronauts to the population of humans in space, which reached a record number of 17 people in orbit — six Chinese citizens, five Americans, three Russians, two Saudis, and one Emirati astronaut.

The arrival of Chinese astronauts Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu, and Gai Haichao in space following their launch atop a Long March rocket broke the previous record of 14 people in orbit at one time.

Meanwhile, the four-person crew of the commercial AX-2 mission to ISS, has undocked from ISS, with SpaceX’s Freedom capsule expected to splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico at 11:09 pm (Eastern) tonight.

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

3 comments

  • Ray Van Dune

    NextSpaceFlight indicates that the targeted splashdown time of AX-2 is 23:09 EST this evening.

  • Ray Van Dune: My eyes no longer see as well as they used to. I misread the time and pm. Now fixed.

  • Edward

    Around 2016, when Falcon 9 was just starting to be reusable, ULA predicted that there would be 20 people working in space by 2021. They may not have been so very far off in their optimism.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxftPmpt7aA (7 minutes, “ULA CisLunar-1000”)

    ULA has abandoned some of the plans mentioned in the video, but these can be replaced by other companies and their plans.

    The video mentions that about half the energy needed to get anywhere in the solar system is just getting into Earth orbit. Here is a delta-v chart:
    http://i.imgur.com/SqdzxzF.png

    Scott Manley mentioned this record number of people in space in his recent “space updates” video:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORTlscibOn4#t=530 (watch 2 minutes)

    Manley mentions that the Virgin Galactic flight last week resulted in 20 people in space, but this Chinese launch puts 17 people in orbit. A distinction with a difference. Manley also says that the SpaceX documents in the lawsuit against the FAA regarding Starship launches show that SpaceX has spent $5 Billion on Starship and the Boca Chica sites. My reading of the documents was that they have spent only $3 billion or so. Manley also says that Starship is expected to cost $2 billion per year for future development, but Starlink is now bringing in revenues with (last I heard) 1-1/2 million subscribers; this should bring in $2 billion per year. More as subscriptions increase. Last year’s 60 or so Falcon launches should have brought in around $4 billion in launch revenue.

    Robert’s posting reminds us that the manned utilization of space is growing, and that China is a major player in this growth. Manned space is starting to shape up in the way that, in the last half of the 2010s decade, we had expected for this decade.

    Exciting times.

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