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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 26, 2023 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts.

To listen to all of John Batchelor’s podcasts, go here.

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

2 comments

  • mkent

    I’ve got to make a few comments on this broadcast as well.

    1) The OIG report concerned the engines and boosters for the SLS made by Aerojet Rocketdyne and Northrop Grumman, respectively. Neither Lockheed Martin nor Boeing have anything to do with these contracts.

    2) The Space Force’s contracting with private companies to build satellites is nothing new. The satellites in question will replace the DMSP satellites built by Lockheed Martin. Almost all Space Force satellites are built by the private sector. For example, the WGS, MUOS, AEHF, GPS, SBIRS, and CBAS satellites are made by Boeing, Lockheed, Lockheed, Lockheed, Lockheed, and Boeing, respectively. Even the NRO’s spy satellites are built by the private sector.

    3) Virgin Orbit’s demise was caused by their own mismanagement, not by the UK regulators. Nobody made them suspend launches while waiting for a UK launch license. They could have submitted the license application and continued to fly from Mojave while they waited for approval. (You didn’t see SpaceX suspend launches from Florida and California while waiting for their Boca Chica launch license.) Virgin Orbit chose to sit around and wait. That’s on them, no one else.

    In addition, Virgin Orbit chose to devote a staff of 700 people to developing larger launch vehicles before their first vehicle was even cashflow positive. They only laid off those people to focus on flying LauncherOne with their remaining staff of 100 people just two weeks before declaring bankruptcy. Had they deferred development of other vehicles until LauncherOne was financially stable, they would have had *many years’* of money left right now. The UK regulators didn’t force Virgin to do this.

    They chose these paths themselves, and they were fatal.

  • GeorgeC

    mkent,
    What do you think of this whole ALTO thing, Air Launch to Orbit? The two companies that were doing it, were using some rather old aircraft. Both of which aircraft were very expensive to design, manufacture, flight certify, then adapt for rocketry. Even for custom built aircraft you might have only a few compared with the competition making boosters by the dozens.

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