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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.
 

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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.


Musk: 10th Starship/Superheavy launch in “about three weeks”

According to a very short tweet Elon Musk posted on July 15, 2025, SpaceX will attempt the 10th orbital test flight of Starship/Superheavy in “about three weeks.”

Musk however provided little information. This is the full text of his tweet:

Launching again in ~3 weeks

The lack of information raises more questions than it answers. For example, how is SpaceX replacing the destroyed Starship that blew up during a static fire test in June on its Massey test stand at Boca Chica? I assume it is using another prototype already in the assembly line, but will it be a version 2 prototype that the company has flown on the past three flights that failed each time after stage separation from Superheavy? Or has SpaceX dumped the prototypes of version 2 and shifted directly to version 3 because of those failures?

How is it going to do its Starship prelaunch static fire tests? Has it gotten its Massey test stand repaired that quickly, or has it found other options? Earlier reports suggested fixing the stand would take much longer. Furthermore, there was the question of fixing it for version 2 or version 3, which require different configurations. Fixing it for version 2 suggested this would delay bringing version 3 on line.

This tweet raises more questions than it answers. However, if Musk is even close to correct than many of these questions will be answered in only a week or two, since that is when prelaunch static fire test must begin.

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

  • Jeff Wright

    That big tube is to go in SuperHeavy, not Starship. It alone is the size of Falcon.

    I can imagine Falcons surrounding the SH core in a Saturn IB configuration–with legs between the tankage.

    There are some rumors of that and/or Starship making barge landings–we’ll see.

  • David Eastman

    Some of those questions you ask were already answered in an NSF article that you linked here a week or so ago.

    1. There are still several V2 Starships in the construction pipeline. Flight 10 is expected to use Starship #37, which is V2. #40 is believed to be the first V3 Starship. They haven’t stopped work on #38 or #39 so at least for now, it looks like they plan to launch them.

    2. SpaceX is creating a removable transition/interface that will allow them to do V2 Starship static fires from the OLM. So they will be able to use OLM 1 for the static fire and launch of the V2 versions. In the meantime, OLM 2 and the ruined static fire mount are being prepared for V3.

  • David Eastman: That NSF article was mostly intelligent speculations. I want confirmations or real information.

  • Diane Wilson

    Sometimes, you only get real info when it happens. Like static fire: it looks like they’re rigging OLM 1 to do a static fire for a ship, but it may turn out to be only a spin prime, which basically runs engines through startup without igniting the fuel. On this count, we may only know what they’re doing when they do it.

    If doing a full static fire on OLM 1 and anything damages the OLM, all bets are off for V2 launches.

    I think the only thing that qualified as “confirmation” is that all estimates are in Elon time.

  • JOHN CLAUGHTON

    This video skips around the SpaceX site in Boca Chica but does show the work being done on the ship adapter made from a ship transport stand that will be used for the static fire of the ship on the launch mount. It also show the plumbing that is being done to fuel the ship for the test fire.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1f7VqxSFKc

  • Jeff Wright

    A lot of co-workers who were supposed to relieve me were on Elon time–though there is another word for it.

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