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Readers!

 

It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

This year I celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black. During that time I have done more than 33,000 posts, mostly covering the global space industry and the related planetary and astronomical science that comes from it. Along the way I have also felt compelled as a free American citizen to regularly post my thoughts on the politics and culture of the time, partly because I think it is important for free Americans to do so, and partly because those politics and that culture have a direct impact on the future of our civilization and its on-going efforts to explore and eventually colonize the solar system.

 

You can’t understand one without understanding the other.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent independent analysis you don’t find elsewhere. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn’t influenced by donations by established companies or political movements. 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.

 

You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:

 

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October 5, 2023 Quick space links

Courtesy of BtB’s stringer Jay.

 

 

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

7 comments

  • Gealon

    It will take them ten years to get Long March 9 flying, because that is how long they estimate it will take SpaceX to get Starship/Super heavy flying, with all of the red tape being thrown at them, and work out all of the bugs, so that they can then steal it. Not that I am at all jaded or syndical. *Cough.*

  • Concerned

    Continuing to refer to this rocket series as”Long March” commemorates and legitimizes the rise to power of the most murderous regime in all of human history.

    It would be like the Germans calling their first orbital rocket Mein Kampf 1.

    I wish we could stop it.

    I suggest we refer to this new rocket as Shoplifter 9, along with all the others in the series.

  • Questioner

    Musk should be careful with his political statements. Ukrainians are easily resentful. I don’t want any physical harm to come to him.

    “Musk Mocks Zelensky With Meme On War Aid | How Tesla Boss Went From Backing To Berating Ukraine”

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zJmg11t5i8

  • Gary

    Here’s a summary of the Biden admin and Musk.

    https://x.com/greg_price11/status/1710042810613743647?s=46

    “ Just so we’re keeping score: The Biden DOJ is suing SpaceX for not hiring refugees, the DOJ and SEC are investigating Tesla, the EEOC is also suing Tesla, the FTC demanded @elonmusk hand over internal Twitter comms and the SEC is now investigating Elon’s purchase of Twitter.”

  • Edward

    In the interview with Musk, he mentions that SpaceX is talking to scientists about launching a large orbital telescope on Starship. This is the kind of thing that Congress probably had in mind when they demanded NASA make a heavy launch vehicle, back in 2010. Unfortunately, Congress specified the mass to be launched but not that it be an affordable launch vehicle.

    Fortunately, commercial space companies are working on affordable launch options, so this large telescope could conceivably be affordable.

  • Questioner

    Max: Thank you. I sent the link to several Ukrainians I know personally. Maybe it will open their eyes.

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