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Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, the support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. 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.

 

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.

 

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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.


March 27, 2018 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts. The first part of this podcast is definitely worth listening to. I go after NASA for both SLS and Webb, which seem to be projects in a competition to see who can last the longest without accomplishing anything. Both are now creeping towards project length’s exceeding two decades, and neither is close to flying.

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

3 comments

  • Localfluff

    The reason NASA shifted focus to the Moon has to do with the difficulties getting an administrator approved. So they need someone who moonlights.

  • J Fincannon

    Bob,
    From your show featuring SLS and Webb, you made what was an apparent general statement about people at NASA.

    Do you really feel that at NASA “No one really cares if they actually build something that works.”?

    That is a pretty comprehensive generalization. I mean, it sounds like you are saying 100% of all workers do not care if something works.

    Also, both you and John stated NASA is a jobs program and pension program. I am not sure what the latter means. Pensions are not paid by NASA, but by the Federal government. NASA gets a certain allocation of jobs to do its multitude of missions. So, it seems that both of you are saying that none of the work at NASA is worth it and could easily not be done by NASA with nothing missed. Am I understanding you right? You both have investigated the entirety of NASA missions and can now generalize and say it is a 100% jobs program?

  • J Fincannon: I know you work at NASA and I know you do good work. I was expressing my disgust mostly with SLS/Orion/Webb and NASA’s management and didn’t parse my words as nicely or as perfectly as reality demands. Moreover, I thought I had said that “no one really cares if they actually build something that actually flies.” SLS especially is a waste. It is too expensive. It will never make it possible to explore the solar system. Linked with LOP-G, the only things these projects accomplish is to suck money from the taxpayer to pay for the jobs at NASA and at the big contractors.

    We all are personally responsible. Every engineer working on SLS knows its a boondoggle, and has gone along for two decades to get that paycheck. LOP-G is the same. Faced with working on this junk I would have quit to go do real work. (That is not false braggadocio. I have done exactly that several times in my life. It is the reason I don’t make a lot of money in what I do, but can sleep at night.)

    That so many continue working there for projects that are empty promises reveals to me their true priorities. I make no apologizes for that conclusion.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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