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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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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.


July 24, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

  • Details on recently awarded NASA unfunded agreements with seven companies
  • Jay notes, “Only two of the seven companies have anything physical: SpaceX and Northup-Grumman.” I must add however that Northrop Grumman’s proposal has to do with things it hasn’t built yet. SpaceX as usual has the most compelling idea: reconfiguring Starship as an orbital space station.

    Since NASA is providing no funds, I am not sure what the companies are getting from the agency in winning these contracts. Its engineers can provide some technical advice for sure, but in the end all they really can do is provide a second pair of eyes to review the work. Or to put it another way, someone whose only job will be to say “no.”

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

3 comments

  • Richard M

    “Since NASA is providing no funds, I am not sure what the companies are getting from the agency in winning these contracts.”

    It has to be said that all these companies (including SpaceX) think it has value, or they wouldn’t have bothered to apply for it!

    But that said, long duration closed loop life support probably IS one of the few areas where NASA still has more institutional knowledge and data than SpaceX has, so they may well be getting something very tangible in that regard.

    But I think the most important takeaway from this story is the one you identified, Bob: that SpaceX now seems to be taking the idea of adapting Starship as a LEO space station much more seriously than they had been before.

  • Jeff Wright

    China wisely sees overall rocketry development as a good in its own right.

    I wish more people here thought that way.

  • Jeff Wright

    More on the graph

    Capitalism vs. Nationalism
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F1vRCoQXwAEurCk?format=jpg&name=large

    While part of me is happy for this state of affairs—a monopoly allows better funding for Starship—-China’s graph is healthier. If any one outfit bites the dust, there are plenty of others to take up the slack. China as a nation has a zeal for spaceflight that Elon alone has here. Tory can’t do anything on his own.

    . Neutron and Terran WILL launch—-but if our field becomes more diverse….then SpaceX may be less able to fund Starship—-thus his concern for getting it flying.

    A lot could be said for this graph, as modern day tea leaves. What could it mean?

    Thus–a third LV provider is being looked at:
    https://spacenews.com/ula-has-concerns-about-a-third-competitor-in-national-security-space-launch/

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