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I am now in the final week of my July fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black, celebrating its 14th anniversary. Thank you all, from the people who have donated small amounts to those who have given large sums. I cannot truly express how much your support means to me.

 

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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.

 

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. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to 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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NASA Awards Next Set Of Commercial Crew Development Agreements

NASA has awarded the next set of commercial crew development agreements, giving contracts worth from $22 to $92 million to four companies, Blue Origin, Sierra Nevada, SpaceX, and Boeing. More here and here.

The amounts that NASA is giving these companies is minuscule, compared the monies spent on the program-formerly-called-Constellation. Yet I bet they all get their rockets/capsules launched and in operation, supplying cargos and crews to low Earth orbit, before NASA even test fires its heavy-lift rocket.

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 you can buy it directly from the author and get an autographed copy.

 
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

  • Take a look at the SpaceX milestones (they’re not redacted).

    You’ll discover 10 milestones for some crew cabin comfort testing (which SpaceX is paying for out of their own pocket) and a single Launch Abort System test. 6 of the 10 milestones are design reviews. There’s more paperwork than work.

  • К комментарию Grom.Напрасно вы спрашиваете copmran.Он отвечает только тогда, когда ему выгодно.На одном комментарии admin дал неполную ссылку на сайт copmran.Я потратил время, но нашел этот сайт.Это даже не сайт, а статические страницы, на которых не нашел ни одного доказательства НИ ОДНОГО пребывания американцев на Луне.Перечисляются все астронавты, есть их фото, словом всё то, чем грешат защитники .Нет только одного.Хоть одного более или менее доказательства.Но убило меня на этих убогих страницах не сам текст, а то, что нельзя это, хоть как-то прокомментировать.Я это понимаю, господин copmran. Это вы не любите.Ведь, дай вы прокомментировать эти странички, то от этих цветных фото со временем, от комментариев сразу слезет показной лоск.А вы copmran критику не любите, хотя сами на сайтах кричите о НАСА во всю ивановскую. У вас уважаемый оказывается двойные стандарты.И знаете что, не стоит вам мне отвечать, ведь ваши ответы для меня предсказуемые, как и ваш убогий сайт (если это можно так назвать).Вы мне не интересны с точки зрения оппонента. Несколько стандартных клише Вот ваш стиль. Это убого.

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