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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.

 

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 or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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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.


On the Space Show tonight

Tonight I will be doing another long appearance from 7:00-9:00 pm (Pacific) with David Livingston on The Space Show. I hope my readers tune in and, more importantly, call in with questions.

When I scheduled this with David several months ago, I told him my expectation was that Starship/Superheavy would still be on the ground due to government blockage. He hoped not. I am sad to say I was right, when I really really wanted to be wrong.

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

3 comments

  • David Eastman

    Early this morning I was reading that the FAA approval was expected to drop today and launch was on schedule for the 6th. Then the FAA announces that they are done with “their part” but are not issuing a launch permit yet as they are still waiting on the FWS to complete their review. Reading between the lines, NASA HLS and SpaceX were both caught off guard by this, expecting the actual full license approval today. This is the time when the senators and house representatives from Texas and Florida both *should* be on the phones to the FAA and FWS asking pointed questions, but for some reason they never are.

  • Dave

    Too busy shmoozing, hustling for dough, and figuring out which telephone book sized bill to sign on to – unread we can guess.

  • David Eastman: I continue to be amazed how anyone can be “caught off guard” by these delays. The default expectation from these paper-pushers under Biden administration supervision should always be delays, delays, delays.

    I still stand by my prediction that this launch will not happen this year. And even if it does, delays of many months for endless investigations after each test launch make Boca Chica useless to SpaceX.

    Either something changes in the federal government (requiring a different president), or SpaceX has to start considering alternatives.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

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