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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.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it 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.


On the radio

On Sunday evening I will be doing another long appearance on Coast to Coast with George Noory. I expect the first hour will talk about SpaceX and commercial space, and the second on some of the more recent planetary missions, both on-going and forthcoming.

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

6 comments

  • t-dub

    Robert, great to hear you are going to be on Coast again, especially for two hours! I will not miss it.

  • wayne

    For everyone who didn’t stay up late on Sunday night…

    Coast to Coast AM
    9-4-16
    https://youtu.be/2U01pyZ6rc8

    “In the first half, space historian Robert Zimmerman provided updates on the latest space news. He reacted to the recent accident at the SpaceX Launchpad in which an explosion destroyed a rocket and a satellite that was about to be launched.”

  • J Fincannon

    Per the inquiry on the show about what to do about fallen possible space debris, this article seemed to have some advice.
    http://www.spacesafetymagazine.com/space-debris/falling-satellite/retrieving-space-debris-world-interview-dan-reichel/

    Amusing and interesting article.
    “Reichel explained that the best approach whenever a suspected space debris object is found is to immediately notify CORDS and NASA since they are easy to contact online and have a vast database of orbital debris. They will also notify DoS, who will notify the UN of the found debris. The objects retain the ownership of the launching state, so, even if a Chinese debris is found on US soil, there is a good chance that the Chinese will ask the UN and the US Government for its release back to them.”

    CORDS is a private company http://www.aerospace.org/cords/
    NASA has an office https://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/
    DoS is the Department of State.

  • wayne

    J Fincannon– thanks for that info!

    Finally had a chance to listen to the entire CtC show, and I was pleasantly surprised as to the quality of the questions. (I was expecting UFO’s and anatomical-probing, stuff.)
    (The Youtube replay btw, has no commercials, “priceless!”)

    For the gentleman in Georgia, I think it was, with the potential piece of a meteorite. My wife was a Geologist & she occasional had inquiries about “strange rocks.”
    “Easy” stuff she could ID immediately but she would often refer people to the Geology department at our local Community College or one of our many State Universities. (They were more than happy to help.)

    (and yes, she owned a very-nice 3 gram cube of an iron-nickel meteorite I bought for her on our 20th anniversary. Diamonds might be forever, but meteorite chunks are truly, out-of-this-world.)

  • Wayne

    generalized meteorite identification–
    http://geology.com/meteorites/meteorite-identification.shtml

    International Meteorite Collectors Association
    http://imca.cc/

  • Wayne: The gentleman from Georgia emailed me after the show, and we corresponded about his rock. He even sent me pictures. Very quickly, after doing some research, we determined it is not a meteorite.

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