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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

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Putin fires head of Roscosmos

Vladimir Putin today fired Yury Borosov, who has run Russia’s space industry as head of Roscosmos for only two and a half years after he replaced Dmitry Rogozin, whom Putin had fired in 2022.

According to this British news report, Borosov was fired due to a “catastrophic reduction in the number of launches, as well as incidents and accidents with serious consequences”. Since 2022, the number of successful Russian launches has dropped from 21 to 19 to 17 (in 2024), and so far in 2025 it has only launched once, a classified military launch yesterday. Though there is no indication that launch was a failure, the timing of Borosov’s firing today suggests something might have gone askew once the payloads reached orbit.

The new Roscosmos head is 39-year-old Dmitry Bakanov, who was previously deputy minister of transport.

It is not likely Bakanov will have any better luck revitalizing Russia’s space industry than Borosov. First, Putin consolidated that industry in 2015 into this single Roscosmos corporation, so there is no competition allowed. Russia under Putin’s rule has increasingly returned to the top-down communist model, and as a result it is increasingly less capable of accomplishing much.

Second, Putin’s idiotic invasion of the Ukraine has done nothing but harm to the nation. And as that war continues to drag on, the harm has only been metastasizing.

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

8 comments

  • Mark Sizer

    the harm has only been metastasizing.

    Good word choice! Unintended consequences tend do that and “metastasizing” seems more appropriate than “cascading”.

  • By “Fired” do you mean he was found to have accidently fallen out of his hotel room window?

  • Skunk Bucket

    It’s revolving trampolines a at Roscosmos these days!

  • Ray Van Dune

    The trampoline reference reminds me of a statement by Dmitry Rogozin concerning Falcon 9. Apparently the Falcon’s simple cylindrical shape led him to underestimate its size and capability, and suggest the U.S. use a trampoline to get to orbit! In fact, Falcon 9 dwarfs the venerable Soyuz.

  • wayne

    Cotour–
    Hilarious.

    Twilight Zone
    “There’s Something on the Wing!”
    https://youtu.be/fXHKDb0CNjA

  • Jeff Wright

    Putin’s cuts to space are what put them in this pickle

  • Skunk Bucket

    Exactly Ray. I was referencing just that. (Typo included at no extra charge.) How the tables have turned since then!

  • Max

    “the harm has only been metastasizing”
    Festering, stagnating, rotting, devolving into meaningless madness devoid of civilization.

    Reminds me of America’s 20 year war with Afghanistan. I can’t even remember what the war was about? When I asked a coworker, fresh from his tour of duty, he told me it was classified and that he cannot tell me about how he protected Poppyfields.
    When the Chinese introduced fentanyl, a cheaper substitute more available then opioid pain killers, the entire reason for being in Afghanistan evaporated.

    I’ve forgotten, who won the war?

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