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Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent independent analysis you don’t find elsewhere. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn’t influenced by donations by established companies or political movements. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed 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.


July 7, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

  • Blue Origin to launch Iranian satellite?
  • The article, unfortunately behind a paywall, is about Iran getting an extension from regulators to launch a long delayed communications satellite. Its headline adds “Blue Origin launch in 2024,” which is the real story. As Jay correctly notes, “What on Earth are they talking about? Using Blue Origin to launch an Iranian satellite? Are they out of their minds? Iran is our enemy.” In searching the web, I could only find one hint (which I can no longer find) that Blue Origin offered to do the launch (though it still lacks a rocket to do so), but no indication that any deal with Iran was ever signed.

 

  • China predicts it will reach 70 launches in 2023, a new record
  • With only 24 launches in the first half of the year, China would almost have to do that number twice over in the second half to meet this target. Since it historically has launched at a much higher pace in November and December, this is not impossible, though still difficult.

 

 

  • Europe shifting more launches to SpaceX due to Ariane-6 delays
  • The article lists six payloads that have or will likely switch to the Falcon 9. That’s a lot of money suddenly flowing to SpaceX, from $200 million to $500 million, depending on price per launch. And it is all happening because Europe first denied the importance of reuseability and second moved too slowly in trying to compete. As Jay notes, “SpaceX did not choose to become a monopoly.”

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

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