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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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Did Russia test hypersonic glide plane?

The Russian state press is reporting that they have successfully tested a hypersonic glide plane for use as a ICBM warhead.

The details are slim but if true, they will have a warhead that will be difficult if not impossible to intercept.

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

6 comments

  • me & myself

    Hypersonic glide vehicles? The US did that with the ASSET and PRIME vehicles in the 60’s. They are also not impossible to intercept because nothing is. Actually, they might be more vulnerable at certain points because they can’t go as fast as a ballistic warhead and regular anti-aircraft missiles might have a good shot at them. Also, the payload goes way down so a MIRV’ed missile might carry 2-3 instead of 10.

    If you really want some that is hypersonic and useful then make it a bomber.

  • pzatchok

    Why do the Russians always seem to perfect and implement technologies a year after the US tests them?
    They even claim to have a hypersonic anti-ship cruse missile.
    We can’t even get the sustained hypersonic part down and they seem to have it licked and even perfected the guidance system enough to hit ships.

    Instead of hypersonic nuclear warheads I would like to see the US perfect and implement hypersonic kinetic kill warheads.
    Re use the old ICBM rockets and have multiple re-entry warheads capable of inflicting 1kt or so of nonnuclear damage to a target.
    We should have the control, shielding and guidance needed for this to work by now.

  • Wayne

    Interesting recent video of Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense & Terminal High Altitude Area Defense–
    https://youtu.be/u0AhYK86aKQ

    How do these rate against the new Russian threat?

  • Wayne

    >kick in the front door & the whole corrupt enterprise will collapse
    https://youtu.be/tyyoaBa7DaE

  • Edward

    Wayne asked: “How do these rate against the new Russian threat?”

    THAAD is designed for ballistic missiles. The unpowered ballistic trajectory must be known at THAAD launchtime, because it puts itself into its own ballistic intercept trajectory, with only minor intercept course adjustments possible as it approaches the target. The new threat is designed to maneuver more like an aircraft. It may be a slow maneuver, like an SR-71, but it should be able to evade our anti-ballistic missile missiles.

    Whether an anti-aircraft missile can take it down is another question.

  • D K Rögnvald Williams

    In the chaos of a nuclear war, hundreds, if not thousands, of warheads would likely get through any conceivable defense. It doesn’t matter to me if I get vaporized from an ICBM, sub-launched ballistic missile, cruise missile, or suitcase nuke. If the Rooskies want to bankrupt themselves on such projects, so be it.

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