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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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Local authorities in Scotland have approved spaceport concept

Capitalism in space: Local authorities in northern Scotland have recommended that planning of a private spaceport in Sutherland should move forward.

Will this happen? I wonder, based on this detail from the article:

Councillors on Highland Council’s north planning applications committee will consider the proposals for Space Hub Sutherland on Friday.

The local authority has received 457 objections to the plans and 118 representations in support of them. Impact on the environment and risk to human health are among the reasons for the objections.

Local community councils have supported the project because it is expected to create new jobs.

The article implies that the local communities support the project, but I’m not sure. Either way, in our fear-driven society today getting that many objections would be is a major hurdle for any project to leap.

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

6 comments

  • Ray Van Dune

    “Hurtle” – Verb: to move at high speed, in an uncontrolled manner..
    “Hurdle” – Noun: a barrier athletes in a foot race must jump over.

  • Ray Van Dune: Thank you. Typo fixed.

  • Ray Van Dune

    You are welcome, and I should have added, I agree with your assessment of the hurdles the project faces.

    The market for a high-latitude private spaceport kind of escapes me. The former “Kodiak” location in Alaska at least offers a wide range of Southerly launch azimuths over the pretty damn near empty North Pacific.

    This Moine location would seem to offer only Northerly launches, being blocked to the south by the UK and Ireland, and to the east by Scandinavia and Russia. Westerly? Oof… perhaps not a good option for smallsat-class boosters!

  • David M. Cook

    Ray, what about ”point-to-point“ travel by global rocket? Doesn‘t every large city need a spaceport?

  • A. Nonymous

    A land spaceport for p2p only really makes sense for a winged rocketplane, and the only real difference from an existing airport in that case is the ability to serve unpowered, gliding landings as a normal feature rather than as an emergency situation (and to supply rocket fuel, and perhaps a hangar large enough for a launcher aircraft). For a VTVL, well, Elon’s not designing CVN-sized barges just for grins; the massive noise generated on a regular (daily?) schedule would get suborbitals kicked out of most cities in a hurry, never mind the collateral risks of a crash in an urban environment.

  • David K

    Just as the NRO made Rocketlab launch the NRO satellites from Virginia, I’m sure the UK will want to do the same thing. It doesn’t have to be in Scotland but it has to be somewhere.

    With the UK leaving the E.U. and becoming a real country again, it is vitally important to national security to be able to launch its space assets from its own soil.

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