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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:

 

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.

 

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Off caving

Because I am off on a caving project this weekend in the mountains where there is no internet service, I will not be able to approve comments or post anything until I return on Sunday.

The next few days should be most interesting, as there are SpaceX and ULA launches scheduled. The SpaceX launch tonight will place a secret government satellite in orbit while trying to land its first stage. The ULA launch on Saturday will be the last launch for its Delta 2 rocket, which the company is retiring because it costs too much to operate.

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

5 comments

  • LocalFluff

    I know virtually nothing about spelunking. Do you drill in dynamite to blow up free passages of access to blocked parts of the caves?

  • LocalFluff

    When you return from radio silence, this is what you have missed (Trump drank water):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnE0Q6yFtqg

    I feel like going down in that cave I happen to have nearby where I live. And stay there for contemplation about the world above.

  • Kirk

    Regarding the Delta-II launch, this JPSS-1 mission is its penultimate launch. The final Delta-II mission will be to loft NASA’s ICESat-2, currently scheduled for September 2018.

    Here is the NSF thread for that mission: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=31179.0

  • wayne

    LocalFluff–

    Wile E. Coyote:
    80 explosions in 11 minutes
    https://youtu.be/0R66Fvhx0vQ
    (10:59)

  • Lee S

    Localfluff….
    My Father was a world class caver back in the 60’s and 70’s , and he took me on a few light trips when I was a lad…
    The procedure back then was digging and light explosives were fine when gaining entry to a cave from the surface, and digging was ok inside the cave as long as you didn’t mess up natural formations too much. I presume etiquette has not changed too much in the intervening years..
    Back in those days there was no rope strong, light and non-stretchy enough for long decents, so they dragged 30′ sections of wire rope ladder with them and hooked them together, and no good battery tech, so lighting was provided by carbide lamps..
    As the club photographer my father also had to carry his camera gear with him in ammo tins!
    Apparently the club motto was “If you ain’t hard… you shouldn’t have come” ?
    Good luck on your mission Bob!

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

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