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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.

 

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First launch of Japan’s H3 rocket aborts at T-0

In its first attempt to launch its new H3 rocket today the rocket’s main liquid-fueled engines ignited, but then the two strap-on solid rockets failed to ignite at T-0, causing that main engine to shut down to protect the rocket and payload.

I have embedded the live stream below, cued to about T-39. At the end of the broadcast the rocket appeared in good condition, though it was still unclear what the caused the problem.

At the moment there is no word when JAXA, Japan’s space agency, will attempt another launch. The H3 is years behind schedule, and was developed in the hope it would be more efficient and cost less to launch than the H2A rocket Japan presently uses.

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

5 comments

  • Col Beausabre

    How can a solid motor fail to ignite. You shoot a blow torch into the darn fuel and bang

  • David Eastman

    I think “fail to ignite” is more “computer refused to ignite them.” It’s possible they had a wiring issue, but I would think refusal is more likely.

  • pawn

    Hang fire!

    Probably a fault in the PIC arming/fire sequence.

    One of the things you don’t fully test during a WDR.

  • Ray Van Dune

    John Young, Commander of the first Shuttle launch which was the first manned mission to use solid rockets, famously replied when asked about launch abort options: “Once the solids ignite, there are no options…. you are definitely going somewhere!”

  • Jay

    Translation from post on twitter and on the NASASpaceFlight forum:
    Rollback tonight JST confirmed as needed to resolve the problem. Schedule to retry unclear at this point – can be as short as a few days, can be an issue which takes longer to resolve. Statement was they are aiming to keep the launch inside the Fiscal Year (running until March 31st), but that’s subject to what the problem actually is.
    Issue was with the 1st stage, but quite probably not with the LE-9, whose ignitions were nominal and reached up to 90% thrust. Clamp release system was operated at T-18 s, but not an issue to re-engage. The SRBs themselves were not to blame: an ignition command was not sent to them from the flight controller avionics, but the computers are also thought to be operating correctly. Can be a sensor issue though. Similar to H-II’s second flight.
    Link sources:
    Twitter In Japanese
    NASASpaceFlight

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