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.


Federal judge throws out Justice’s discrimination lawsuit against SpaceX

A federal judge in Texas yesterday dismissed the Biden Justice Department lawsuit against SpaceX that accused the company of discrimination for not hiring illegal immigrants.

A federal judge in Texas on Wednesday halted the Justice Department’s case, after the company called it “factually and legally insupportable.” Musk has argued that SpaceX was barred from hiring foreign nationals because of restrictions placed on sharing of information related to rocket technology.

The Justice Department had been investigating SpaceX’s hiring practices since 2020 after receiving a complaint from a person who claimed he was turned down for a job after revealing during an interview that he wasn’t a US citizen or a lawful permanent resident.

At the present Biden’s Justice department has not responded to this decision. The lawsuit might have been idiotic on its face, but its deeper intention was simply to harass SpaceX and Elon Musk — now considered an enemy to Democratic Party rule — and in that it has so far succeeded. Appealing this decision will continue that harassment, even if it is patently obvious that the suit has no merits at all.

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

10 comments

  • Ray Van Dune

    I wonder if some of the Democrat harassments of SpaceX we’re seeing aren’t going to end up being background context items in a future history book?

    Say, “The Earth-Mars Civil War, 2257 – 2267”?

  • Jay

    I knew that this would be defeated. This was just another shakedown to SpaceX by the Biden administration.

  • wayne

    The Expanse
    Planetary Railgun Strike on Martian Stealth Ballistic Missile Platforms”
    https://youtu.be/sjFfw7dcYqY
    6:38

  • David Ross

    Ideally I’d like to see this DOJ marked as a vexatious litigant.

  • David Eastman

    Hardly surprising, but when the suit was announced, it was covered everywhere. I’ve tried a couple different searches and can’t find anything about the dismissal besides the article you linked, and google doesn’t even bring that article up. I’ve been trying to find the actual order from the court to see what reasoning the judge used, and can’t find it anywhere searchable.

  • David Eastman: Using the Whatfinger search engine (here) I found this story at the Verge.

  • Dick Eagleson

    Nice find, Robert. The whiny and weasel-y headline on the piece makes it obvious that this outcome seriously chapped some behinds at the cesspit of woke progressivism that is The Verge.

  • Jeff Wright

    This is where ITAR did some good. They regulated themselves into a box. He can’t hire foreign nationals…but if ITAR was repealed…then he could go off shore. Catch-22.

  • Col Beausabre

    outcome seriously chapped some behinds

    Good! Great !! Make Liberals Cry Again

  • Richard M

    Hello Dick,

    The actual story is not as bad as the headline; but I am sure they know that most peeps won’t read past the headline.

    At any rate this is what separates Ars Technica from The Verge: Ars is full of Woke, too, but they managed to hire two solid space journalists in Eric Berger and Stephen Clark, and they let them have free run. The result is that they managed to provide some of the best coverage of SpaceX that exists out there. I hope it lasts.

Leave a Reply

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