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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

No matter. I am here, and here I intend to stay. If you like what I do and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. 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
 
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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.


Live stream of SpaceX launch of two lunar landers

I have embedded below the live stream of tonight’s launch by SpaceX of its Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy, carrying a dual lunar lander payload, Firefly’s Blue Ghost and Ispace’s Resilience, scheduled for 1:11 am (Eastern).

Blue Ghost will take 45 days to reach the Moon, when it will land in Mare Crisium on the eastern edge of the Moon’s visible hemisphere.

Resilience will take a much longer route, not arriving at the Moon for four to five months. It will then attempt to land in Mare Frigoris in the high northern latitudes of the visible hemisphere. If successful it will also deploy its own mini-rover dubbed Tenacious.

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

8 comments

  • Call Me Ishmael

    “Mare Figoris”

    Mare Frigoris.

  • mkent

    I can’t watch this one either. It, iSpace’s livestream, and NASA’s livestream all want me to sign in to prove I’m not a bot.

    I don’t have a YouTube account. I don’t want a YouTube account. I’m not getting a YouTube account, and screw you for trying to make me.

  • mkent: I don’t have a youtube account either. I have no idea why youtube is demanding you sign in. (I haven’t signed in to Google in almost a decade, and have no intention of doing so ever.) It doesn’t request this as far as I know on all the videos I embed.

    The problem clearly is at your end. I wish I could help, despite the rude way in which you made your problem known.

  • Call Me Ishmael: Typo fixed. Thanks.

  • Digital Night

    I’ve been seeing the sign in to prove your not a bot message more and more. It tends to be when I’m using a ISP that is doing Carrier Grade NAT and I’m sharing that one IP with dozens of people. Or if I’m using the company VPN service (which has the same effect). Just a data point to consider.

  • Max

    mkent;
    When the “sign-in” pops up, click/select on any alternative video which will start something playing, then click the arrow back to the previous screen you want to see… and the login screen will be gone. (at least it works for me)

    More more clicks, the more revenue for advertising and if they get people to login, even better. They’ll usually leave a work around just so people who don’t have an account can be counted as a click. Otherwise the former customers will leave and never come back… there’s far too many alternatives to risk annoying customers. (their public/private partnership guaranteeing monopoly government approval isn’t working out so well… they can’t even ban tick-tock from the American market! Especially with all those millions of dollars of bribes to Hunter)

  • mkent

    ”I wish I could help, despite the rude way in which you made your problem known.”

    My sincere apologies. For the record, my ire was directed at YouTube, not you, hence the reference to the iSpace and NASA (and also NASASpaceFlight) feeds, all of which were doing the same thing. But, regardless, my apologies.

  • mkent: Apology accepted. Some advice: If you are express ire, make sure you are very precise about what you say. And in general, emotional venting is counter-productive.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

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