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Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

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Falcon 9 has cleared the tower

Falcon 9 has cleared the tower and is “looking good.”

First stage has completed its job and has been released. The second stage is firing as planned.

Dragon has separated from the second stage and is now in orbit. Now comes the real test of this mission: Can Dragon maneuver and rendezvous with ISS?

The best moment for the entire launch sequence was when Dragon’s solar arrays deployed. The camera link was still working, so that everyone could see it. When the arrays locked open, there was a gigantic roar from the crowd of people watching at SpaceX’s mission control. Dragon was in orbit and operational!

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

4 comments

  • wodun

    It was exciting even if I was on the phone through the whole thing. The coolest part of any launch is the roar followed closely by the view of Earth from so far away.

  • Patrick Ritchie

    Terrific launch. the cheers from Spacex HQ in Hawthorne when the solar panels opened up said it all. I particularly liked Miles O’Briens quote from twitter:

    #DragaonLaunch #SpaceX webcast versus commentators versus #NASA’s = Meth versus Prozac

  • Craig Beasley

    Hmm. I understand what Mr. O’Brien is meaning to convey, but comparing two components of our space industry to two drugs, one of which is illegal, that seems unwise. YMMV.

  • Chris Kirkendall

    This is great news – let’s hope the rest of the mission goes as well as launch, orbit & sloar panel deployment. If this demo flight & subsequent ISS deliveries continue to go well, maybe it won’t be all that long before we’ll be launching our own astronauts on Falcon/Dragon & not having to rely on Soyuz…

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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