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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.

 

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UPDATE: Launch did not occur

UPDATE: Thanks to my readers (see below), we can now confirm that the launch listed below did not occur as indicated at the link I provided, and is rescheduled for a few days hence. I have therefore removed this launch from Russia’s totals for 2024.

The corrected leaders in the 2024 launch race:

122 SpaceX
55 China
14 Russia
13 Rocket Lab

American private enterprise leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 141 to 82, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world, including American companies, 122 to 101.

The original post, minus the launch totals:
————————
Russia yesterday apparently launched a classified military payload, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk spaceport in northwest Russia.

This launch however remains unconfirmed by any other sources. No information about its launch or payload appears available on line, except for the link I provide above. Though I am adding it to Russia’s launch totals, I will remove if if further information proves it did not happen.

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

5 comments

  • mkent

    ”Though I am adding it to Russia’s launch totals, I will remove if if further information proves it did not happen.”

    It did not happen. Apparently rescheduled for 03 Dec.

  • mkent: Do you have a source?

  • Richard M

    Hi Bob,

    Bart Hendrickx reported the delay over at the NSF forums – and a couple other outlets.

    It turns out authorities in the Yamal region (the impact zone for the core stage) announced the launch delay on November 25, two days before the originally planned launch date, so this was definitely not a launch day scrub.
    https://vk.com/wall-225776269_286

    As far as I can see, there has not been a similar announcement for the residents of the Komi republic, the impact zone for the first-stage strap-on boosters.

    So the launch is now planned for 3 December between 16.00 and 19.00 UTC. This window had already been given in the original impact zone announcements last week. The windows given were:
    27-28 November: 19.00-21.00 UTC
    3-4, 9-10 December: 16.00-19.00 UTC

    There are indeed reports in the local Yamal press that two satellites will be on board, but this is not in the official announcements. Looking a bit further, it seems that local reporters were confused by the fact that there are two Russian launches in a timespan of several days (this one and Kondor-FKA-2). But in the end there may be turn out to be two satellites on board after all, a Lotos and a small passenger satellite. Again, this should become clear from the official launch announcement, which would then talk about satellites having been placed into orbit for the Ministry of Defense.

    Link: https://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=61898.msg2645042#msg2645042

  • Thanks to Richard M. and mkent. I have now corrected the 2024 launch count and revised this post.

  • mkent

    There is also NextSpaceflight.com.

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