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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
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.


January 4, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

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

4 comments

  • LTC (Ret.) Ted

    My best guess is that the image was intentionally less sharp to surprise the U. S., later. “Gosh! If that’s all the better the Reds can do, why spend time, effort, and money on cloaking?”

  • sippin_bourbon

    The good Colonel is correct. I seriously doubt they released the fully resolved image.
    But even then, put two or three images together, and you can refine the resolution.

    Analysis all the way down to the smallest pixel can reveal all kinds of detail. NRO has been doing it for decades.

    And I, for one, do not underestimate the Chinese.

    Norfolk is wide open anyway. Anyone with a motor boat can drive through Chesapeake bay with a go pro on the bow, and record activity. Plenty of small aircraft can fly near enough with todays optics to see the big stuff like this. Naval vessels in port cannot be hidden. Yamamoto knew this, and used it to his advantage.

    I am also reminded of the “Big Carrier” debate. Is is better to have 10 or so big super carriers, (only a portion of which can be at sea at any given time) or is should we be building many less expensive carriers.

  • Jay

    Guys, I was poking fun at the Chinese. They were trying to shock people with their picture of Norfolk. Anyone with a satellite can take photos. We have been taking satellite photos for over sixty years. Sometimes when the Chinese try to look and sound serious, the propaganda comes off as comical.
    One item that was not posted was a video of a Chinese rocket to Mars, but they screwed up and used the planet Venus. Another video from a few years ago was showing off one of their new J-Class jets and they mixed in scenes from the movie “Top Gun”.

    I do take them seriously as I watch their developments in technology from their pseudo-companies. I note and compare their engines, the rocket capabilities, and their improvements to Russian technology. I have been following them since I first heard about their manned space program-“Project 921” in 1998 (I thought it was going to be a mini shuttle like Hermes, but it is a copy of a Soyuz). You learn to sift through to the good information and weed out the propaganda.

  • sippin_bourbon

    ” ‘Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak” – Sun Tzu, A long time ago.

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