To read this post please scroll down.

 

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.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

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.


December 11, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

 

  • Ghana in Africa warns its citizens not to use Starlink illegally
  • Heavy fines are threatened. Ghana is the fourth African country to issue such a warning, after South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Senegal. Apparently the citizens of those countries are tired of bad phone and internet service, and have been bypassing their incompetent government to get it on the black market from private enterprise. In other words, they are exercising independence, and we can’t have that!

 

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

  • Jay

    Launch scrubbed due to ground issue. New scheduled launch tomorrow at 8:24 p.m. ET (01:24 UTC, 02:24 CET, December 12).

  • Jason Miller

    The article about Ghana and “illegal” Starlink use has me wondering. I thought Starlink service was supposed to be geofenced to countries & areas where the service was officially approved (with a few exceptions like Iran where Starlink is enabled but there is no hope of ever getting regulatory approval). Can anyone with a Starlink terminal just use it anywhere? I don’t see anything on their website explicitly answering what happens if you have “Global Mobile” service and you happen to venture into a country where Starlink is not officially allowed. Would it work as long as your account is domiciled in a country where Starlink *is* permitted? Or maybe the government of Ghana is just redundantly telling its people not do to something that is not possible to begin with.

    In the “Martime” section of their web site, it does say that “if a vessel strays into the waters of a country which prohibits Starlink from operating within it, our satellites will be unable to communicate with it effectively.” What is “effectively” supposed to mean? It’s all as clear as mud.

    P.S. In doing some searching on this topic, I saw a story stating that the Radio Regulations Board (RRB) of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has demanded that Starlink cease operations in Iran. Imagine how surprised I am to learn that this UN body is doing the work of the mullahs in Tehran.

  • Jay

    Jason,
    I am sure some people have hacked the dish so it can be seen anywhere. Some people have been bringing their Starlink dishes out to the remote south Pacific islands with no problems at all. Also, there has been use of Starlink out of China.

    Remember that the U.N. made Iran the chair of the Human Rights Council last month!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *