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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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Russia and China sign agreement for future space cooperation

The new colonial movement: Russia and China last week signed an agreement to establish a greater cooperation in future space projects.

“The session ended with the signing of a protocol in which the two parties agreed to take further steps to seek rapprochement in implementing joint projects for the manufacture of space vehicles and rocket engines, exploring the Moon and deep space, remote sensing of the Earth, satellite navigation, creating a base of electronics components for the space industry, and low orbit mobile communication systems and space debris monitoring,” the report runs.

This is a direct negotiating threat from Russia to the U.S., telling us that they might switch teams from NASA to China if they don’t get what they want in the Gateway partnership. And since NASA really doesn’t have the ability to build much itself (more on this later today), if they make this switch it could very well kill Gateway, all by itself.

Because of this, expect NASA management (part of the DC culture) to backstab the U.S. in any negotiations with Russia on Gateway. Rather than defend U.S. interests, they will instead be focused on guaranteeing Russia participation, even if the deal might cripple the burgeoning private American space industry.

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

One comment

  • wodun

    What is the Russian contribution to Gateway?

    Maybe this is more about prolonging the ISS. I wouldn’t be too worried because Russia and China have some bad blood and the real threat to Gateway is that SLS/Orion will get cancelled.

    Haven’t the Euros also been in talks with China?

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