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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.

 

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May 15, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

  • Several Mars images, here and here, from China’s Tianwen-1 Mars orbiter
  • All are features at or near the Martian north pole.

 

 

 

  • Fifty years ago today Skylab was launched on the final Saturn-5 rocket
  • During the launch a side insulation panel was ripped off, destroying one of the station’s two main solar panels and also allowing the station’s temperature to rise to unmanageable levels. The other main solar panel meanwhile failed to deploy in orbit because of a strap. Astronauts led by moonwalker Pete Conrad did a series of spacewalks to free the stuck panel as well as install a new umbrella-like cover to bring the station’s temperature down to the correct levels. These successes made it possible for three crews total to occupy Skylab over the next two years.

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

  • James Street

    I’m not sure what this means… was Musk involved with Epstein and if so, how deep. Is the swamp blackmailing him?

    Elon Musk Was Issued Subpoena in JPMorgan Epstein Suit
    ByBob Van Voris
    May 15, 2023
    Elon Musk was issued a subpoena by the US Virgin Islands in its lawsuit accusing JPMorgan Chase & Co. of knowingly benefiting from Jeffrey Epstein’s sex-trafficking.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-15/elon-musk-was-subpoenaed-in-jpmorgan-epstein-suit-by-usvi?leadSource=uverify%20wall

  • Mitch S.

    First Gerstenmaier, now Lueders.

    Makes sense for SpaceX but I wonder how Gerstenmaier and now Lueders will feel about their time at SpaceX vs NASA.
    Of course now they won’t knock NASA as it’s an important partner/customer but I hope an Eric Berger or Bob Zimmerman is poking around and taking notes so the next chapters of the SpaceX story can be accurately told.

  • Tom Billings

    James asked:

    ” … was Musk involved with Epstein and if so, how deep. ”

    This seems a deep and wide dredging suit to benefit the Democratic Party, by dragging in as many people who are on Chase’s books as possible, to distract from the politicians that were in Epstein’s books. Theoretically *I* could be dragged in, because *I* have an account with Chase as a buffer for investment to transactions like paying bills. Musk is prominent, and a target of Democrat coalition allies, and may have had a similar account, though of much larger size. It sounds like Chase asked Epstein about musk, and whatever he told them did not scare them off of Musk.

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