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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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Northrop Grumman launches U.S. reconnaissance satellites

Capitalism in space: Northrop Grumman today successfully used its Minotaur-4 rocket to launch four U.S. reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office.

Minotaur-4 is essentially re-purposed military ICBM that had been decommissioned, refurbished, and upgraded for orbital flight. This was its first launch from Wallops Island in Virginia. This was also Northrop Grumman’s second launch this year, which still leaves them out of the 2020 launch race leader board:

16 China
10 SpaceX
7 Russia
3 ULA

Today’s launch however puts the U.S. ahead of China in the national rankings, 17 to 16.

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

5 comments

  • David K

    Do we have any idea of how many tons to Leo? I suspect that not all launches are the same in this regard.

  • LocalFluff

    @David K
    I once tried to have a look at that. And it’s a mess! It’s no secret what each rocket can launch to lowest possible orbit, but how much they actually launch depends on what orbit the cargo is going into. And they rarely always launch at full capacity. NRO will launch a satellite only half the capacity of an Atlas V 501, the Japanese who always launch on their own rockets put satellites of different weight inside that nose cone.

    Basic physics tells us that the energy required to put anything anywhere, increases by the square of the velocity, but only linearly with the mass. So where something is launched to is more important than the mass of what is put there. A useful benchmark would be geosynchronous orbit since so many satellites are put there. But with things like Starlink in LEO, that is perhaps not so useful anymore.

  • LocalFluff

    One measure could be the amount of fuel and oxidizer used per launch (adjusted for whether it is kerosene, hydrogen or hypergolic or solid). But that too is a mess. They use safety margins in space flight, understandably. Depending on launch window they need a bit more or less fuel in the rocket. And for example when Curiosity was launched to Mars, its Sky Crane arrived with 140 kg extra fuel. The rover itself weighs barely a ton, so that’s pretty substantial. Considering the expenses for lowering the mass of everything that goes to space. But that seems to end now with SpaceX’ giant steel rocket. Bigger, faster and bigger again! And bigger. (And faster.)

  • wayne

    LGM-118 MX Peacekeeper ICBM
    https://youtu.be/RHlYc_MzvLk
    6:15

  • Edward

    LocalFluff wrote: “But that seems to end now with SpaceX’ giant steel rocket. Bigger, faster and bigger again! And bigger. (And faster.)

    Please remember the popularity of the cubesat and other smallsats that are now being built by the hundred (e.g. Starlink). There are plenty of small launchers being developed and one that is operational in a very successful way.

    SpaceX’s large sized rocket is due to its aspiration to get a lot of people and equipment to Mars. Space, today, seems to be going in both directions, large and small, with a little in between.

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