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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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May 21, 2021 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts.

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

15 comments

  • Mark

    Another informative broadcast episode with Bob and John Batchelor. Like the chronicles of the moon race of the 1960s, fifty years from now there will histories written of this new ‘Mars Race’. When reviewing the PRC Zhurong, those who are brave will agree with Bob’s comment “They stole it”.
    For these weekly broadcasts, we need to nominate Bob and John for a Science Media Award for Best Audio Science. Does anybody know of any institution that handles such awards?

  • Bob, I believe the movie you are thinking of is “Destination Moon” from 1950. Big steel rockets!

  • wayne

    Steve–
    That’s my cue….

    Destination Moon (1950)
    https://youtu.be/OfL0as0zrMc
    1:29:09
    –>very nice print!

  • wayne

    a very nice print as well, can be found here:

    https://archive.org/details/DestinationMoon1950

    (stream or download, no commercials)

  • wayne

    Can’t forget—-
    https://archive.org/details/WhenWorldsCollide_201604
    (great rocket-launch scene!)

  • wayne

    Mark–
    Oh yeah, John Batchelor is a national-treasure! (Not to mention our own Mr. Z.!)

    Mr. Z.;
    I think “reality television,’ is what you were thinking of. (personally, I only watch Gold Rush, pirated off the interweb, as I have no cable.)

    related to the initial theme:
    https://archive.org/details/pulpmagazinearchive
    ->Great science-fiction Pulp Magazine covers!

  • James Street

    I find myself humming “Flash” by Queen whenever Starship launches.

    Queen – Flash (Official Video) – 2:52
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfmrHTdXgK4

  • James Street

    Meanwhile from the world of Elon Musk:

    Elon Musk @elonmusk
    Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology
    2:22 AM · May 22, 2021
    https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1396033766490087426

  • Steve Golson: Yup, that’s the movie. In trying to gently correct John, I goofed slightly myself, though I think if anyone wanted to find it, using our discussion as a guide, they can.

  • Wayne: You are the man to ask: Is there a viewable version of “When Worlds Collide” available anywhere on line?

  • Wayne: Heh. You answered my question before I asked it!

  • wayne

    James-
    Good stuff!

    Starship looks a lot like…..

    Fireball XL5 (1962)
    Intro & Outro
    https://youtu.be/6ifS2nP53Zs
    2:29

  • wayne

    If anyone wants to watch Fireball XL5, without utilizing youtube….
    ->
    https://archive.org/details/FireballXL5.complete
    (about 145MB’s per episode in .mp4)

  • Icepilot

    Now watching “Destination Moon” (again) via Starlink (score!), having read the book many years ago. Heinlien’s prediction of Elon Musk is prescient beyond belief.

  • Mark McSherry

    Concerning DESTINATION MOON: Archive.org hosts the 48 minute TV kinescope of “City at Night”—

    “… (a) TV magazine show, hosted by Keith Hetherington and Dorothy Gardiner.

    “Traveling to a different and unannounced location of interest every week, the program here presents a “live,” behind-the-scenes look at the shooting of the film “Destination Moon”.

    “Based on information discussed within the program and program schedules published in the Los Angeles Times,” someone on the Internet has “deduced that it was telecast on October 11, 1949.”

    https://archive.org/details/CityAtNight10111949

    Heinlein makes his first appearance at the 12:00 minute mark.

    The RAH collection “Requiem: New Collected Works by Robert A. Heinlein and Tributes to the Grand Master” has three Destination Moon articles-

    – RAH’s novelette ‘Destination Moon”
    – RAH’s piece that appeared in the July 1950 Astounding Science Fiction called “Shooting Destination Moon”
    – RAH’s Guest of Honor speech (1969 Rio de Janeiro Movie Festival) prior to a showing of DM

    Requiem also has RAH’s 1940 first D. D. Harriman story, “Requiem”, but not the 1950 ‘Harriman’ short novel, “The Man Who Sold the Moon.”

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