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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.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it 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.


May 20, 2024 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay. This post is also an open thread. I welcome my readers to post any comments or additional links relating to any space issues, even if unrelated to the links below.

 

 

 

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

  • mkent

    As long as this is an open thread for space-related topics, I urge everyone to check out Tory Bruno’s Twitter feed. He has photos of stacks of Atlas V first stages, Centaur III upper stages (for Atlas V), and Centaur V upper stages (for Vulcan). In addition, he has a photo of both BE-4s integrated on the next Vulcan (for the Cert-2 mission) and has stated that the first engine for the next Vulcan (for USSF-106) has been installed and the second engine has passed ATP and is being boxed up for shipment.

    It sounds like they really are just waiting for payloads right now.

  • mkent: As much as I have criticized Blue Origin over the past five years, I am increasingly encouraged by the positive change that seems to have come over the company since Bob Smith left last fall. I truly hope it is able to deliver on the 100+ engines that both ULA and itself need in the next few years.

  • David M. Cook

    Re: LM 2D grid fins. China, being a socialist state, does not need to save money on launches. Nor do they need to provide a lower price to their customers, because they have no customers. Socialism does not lend itself to advancing technology, unless they can steal from a nearby capitalist state as the Soviet Union did for many years.

  • DJ

    What will it take to launch the 3,236 satellites required for the Kuiper project? Can Blue Origin launch all of them on their own in the time frame per the licensing?

  • Jeff Wright

    To David Cook,

    It was precisely the backwardness of Soviet atomics and electronics that allowed the (then) mammoth R-7 to begin the space race in earnest.

    They had no fear of size and didn’t have profit-seeking Boeing suits slowing them down.

    It must also be allowed that early Soviets were Cosmists/futurists…wishing to expand the noosphere, unlike today’s Greens who want us all in caves.

    Libertarian theology is self contradictory in teaching fear of an all pervasive government that is also supposed to be incompetent

  • DJ: If you do a search on this website for “Kuiper” “ULA” you will find that Amazon has launch contracts with ULA, Blue Origin, and Arianespace. It also signed a deal for I think two launches with SpaceX, just to discount a shareholder lawsuit for not doing so.

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