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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
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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.


Orbital ATK suit against DARPA dismissed

A lawsuit filed by Orbital ATK against a DARPA satellite servicing project that Orbital believed was in direct competition with its own servicing project has been thrown out.

Essentially, the judge ruled that the suit had no real basis in law.

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

2 comments

  • Edward

    This comes from that “bastion of accuracy,” Wikipedia, but:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Administrative_Procedure_Act_(United_States)
    “In order to protect citizens, the APA also grants the judiciary oversight over all agency actions.

    This suggests that any agency’s actions are subject to judiciary oversight, not just policy violations. Apparently, this court has decided that is not true.

    From the Space News article: “The court also concluded that the national space policy was not subject to the Administrative Procedure Act, the law Orbital ATK claimed DARPA was in violation of by failing to abide by the policy. Such policies, the court ruled, do not have the force of law.

    Apparently, agencies may freely act in violation of their own policies without judiciary oversight, and no one may complain about such violations of policy, at least not in the courts, whose sole job it is to be a disinterested third party in order to peacefully resolve disputes.

    If we cannot count on government agencies to follow their own policies, what good are those policies? If we cannot count on the courts to resolve disputes, what good are the courts?

    I think that the court used the wrong criteria in order to allow another government entity to continue on with its wishes.

  • wodun

    Apparently, agencies may freely act in violation of their own policies without judiciary oversight, and no one may complain about such violations of policy, at least not in the courts

    Unless it is environmental groups suing the EPA, then policies like this must be enforced while paying out huge settlements to environmental groups.

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