Off to Huntsville, Alabama
I am about to leave for Huntsville, Alabama to give a lecture: tomorrow, July 25, 2019, at 6 pm (Eastern), at the National Geographic Theater located at the US Space and Rocket Center.
This event is part of their “Pass the Torch” lecture series. My subject: How Apollo 8, not Apollo 11, won the 1960s space race and changed the world
If you are Huntsville or nearby please consider coming by. It will be a great event.
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 this year has the propaganda 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 refuse 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. 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.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
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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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
I am about to leave for Huntsville, Alabama to give a lecture: tomorrow, July 25, 2019, at 6 pm (Eastern), at the National Geographic Theater located at the US Space and Rocket Center.
This event is part of their “Pass the Torch” lecture series. My subject: How Apollo 8, not Apollo 11, won the 1960s space race and changed the world
If you are Huntsville or nearby please consider coming by. It will be a great event.
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 this year has the propaganda 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 refuse 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.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. 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.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
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. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Robert,
I visited there last week after I got done with a project I had in Tennessee. First thing I did was make a bee line to the Saturn V! I never get tired of looking at that. I wish you had the event last week, I probably would of caught it.
I am sure you have been there before, but just to warn you, there is that super humidity there. We both live in areas of the U.S. with very low humidity. Safe flight.
Well, I wish I could make this. Hope they can make a recording of it available at some point.
I think you are 100% correct: Apollo 8 won the Space Race. We now know the Soviets were really nowhere near being able to do a landing in 1969 (and likely for some time beyond that) given the massive teething problems with the N1.
But they *did* have an outside chance of pulling off a circumlunar Zond flight before an American lunar orbit flight (“F” mission), which would have been a major propaganda coup than it deserved to be; and the evidence is that the Soviets were trying up to the last minute to do *something* at Baikonur in December (see Quest, 2004 issues Volume 11, numbers 1 and 2). Given them a few more months to try, and . . .
But Apollo 8 beat them to the punch. Apollo 8 won the race. And in many ways, it is the most historic space flight.
Ha! I am going to drive up from Birmingham. Unusually low temps and humidity these past couple of days in Bama!
It was nice to meet you Mr. Zimmerman! We both enjoyed the presentation and I especially appreciated hearing about the real human elements behind these major historical events. The contrast between Lovell’s and Borman’s perspective of Earthrise is definitely thought provoking. Aside from your talk and eating German food underneath a Saturn V, we both also were very impressed with the VR Apollo 11 experience. Seeing the Earth from orbit and watching the first step from the perspective of the Moon’s surface was mindblowing. Overall, it was a very worthwhile trip to Huntsville!
Ryan: It was a pleasure to meet two of my readers. Note that the famous Earthrise picture was taken by Bill Anders, not Jim Lovell. I hope I didn’t say Lovell in my talk by mistake. I didn’t think so.
You are quite right, I just had Lovell on the brain. You did specifically say it was Anders in the talk.