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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.
 

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
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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.


Falcon 9 successfully places 143 satellites into orbit

Capitalism in space: SpaceX this morning successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket carrying a record 143 smallsats into orbit.

As I write this they are in the process of deploying the satellites, which will take time as the upper stage circles the Earth. This launch of 143 satellites beats the former record of the most satellites deployed on a single launch, 104, set by India in 2017.

The first stage landed successfully, completing its fifth flight. They also recovered both fairing halves.

The standings in the 2021 launch race:

3 SpaceX
1 Rocket Lab
1 Virgin Orbit
1 China

The U.S. now leads China 5 to 1 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

  • eddie willers

    On Scott Adams’ podcast yesterday he said now that Trump is out of office, Elon Musk becomes the most interesting man in the world.

    He ain’t lying!

  • Clark Jerrell

    I’m heartened by the fact that, thus far, we’re doing to the ChiComms what we did to the Soviets during Gemini and Appollo: Outlaunch them by many multiples-to-one.

    Despite the slight veneer of capitalism that the CCP applies to its command-and-control economy, it would appear a fact of communism that they just can’t keep up with a more market-based economic model.

    OT: Just finished reading “Pioneer”. Mr. Zimmerman, I really wish you had more such riveting sci-fi for me to devour! I usually don’t much enjoy first-person fiction, but “Pioneer”, I’m happy to say, is a remarkable exception.

  • Clark Jerrell: Thank you for the kind words about Pioneer.

    Had any publisher or agent had been interested back in 1982 in helping me get published, history would have been very different. None were. Over time my writing focus shifted to non-fiction, because I found I could make money writing it without having to go through third parties (agents).

    Today those agents are gone, so the book is finally in print. Writing fiction however is not where my mind travels these days, though I do have several still unpublished fiction from years past that probably could be published today. I will consider doing that, when I have time.

  • geoffc

    Interestingly, the 10 Starlinks also launched are perhaps the first to have the Laser cross links! Woo Hoo! That is needed for the reduced latency. Good to see them showing up. Alas, seems to be missing on the first 1000 satellites, but there are 3400 more to go…

  • Rodney

    SpaceX seems to have the handle on polar launches from the Cape. More employment leaving California for Florida?

  • Sayomara

    Does anyone know why the first stage took so long to land today?

  • Sayomara: As far as I could see, it landed at about the same time as all other first stages, if not sooner. The timing might have been slightly different because this was a polar launch heading south from Florida, rather than east.

  • Jay

    SpaceX will be launching another 60 Starlink satellites this Saturday (01/30/2021).

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