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Please forgive this pleading appeal. I am now doing my annual February fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black to celebrate my 73rd birthday. Your support, by donating or subscription, will allow me to continue this work as long as I am able. And I don't want to stop anytime soon.

 

And I do provide unique value. Fifteen years ago I said NASA's SLS rocket was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said its Orion capsule 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. And 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.

 

Nor am I making this up. My overall track record bears it out.

 

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Russia launches classified nine satellites

Russia yesterday successfully placed nine classified military satellites into orbit, its Soyuz-2 rocket lifting off from its Plesetsk spaceport in northeast Russia.

The rocket’s flight path took it over the Arctic, where all its lower stages fell harmlessly. As for the satellites:

Based on these orbital parameters, it appeared that upon forming its initial near-circular orbit at an altitude just below 330 kilometers, the Fregat released one (main) payload (Object 2026-023A). The space tug then maneuvered to a near 500-kilometer orbit, where it released the rest of its passengers (Objects B, C, D, E, F, G, H and J).

The 2026 launch race:

14 SpaceX
6 China
2 Rocket Lab
1 Russia

Launches in the past week have dropped practically to zero, for what appear to be technical and political reasons. SpaceX has paused launches as it investigates why the upper stage on its last launch on February 2, 2025 did not correctly do its de-orbit burn. China meanwhile seems to have partly done the same after losing two rockets in launches in mid-January, a Long March 3B and the Ceres-2. There have been no launches of its workhorse Long March 3B rocket since then, while the Ceres-2 launch was that rocket’s maiden flight for the pseudo-company Galactic Energy. Since then there have been no launches by any of China’s pseudo-companies. It could be the new government agency in charge of all these fake companies has imposed its will and paused them all while the Ceres-2 failure is investigated.

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

  • Richard M

    SpaceX has paused launches as it investigates why the upper stage on its last launch on February 2, 2025 did not correctly do its de-orbit burn.

    Yeah, they’re not saying anything about that. But an hour ago, NASA’s ISS X account posted this: “@NASA’s @SpaceX
    Crew-12 mission is targeted to launch to the orbital outpost no earlier than 6:01am ET on Wednesday, Feb. 11.”

    https://x.com/Space_Station/status/2019863820835930343

    So, it sounds like NASA and SpaceX think the investigation is satisfactory enough that they’re pushing through with the Crew-12 launch on Wednesday.

    And then there’s Starlink 17-33, which is listed by the FAA (as of yesterday) as still being scheduled for launch tomorrow. Is that still really the case? I don’t know. But I think all of us have been assuming that there wouldn’t be much of a delay involved in this.

    https://www.fly.faa.gov/adv/adv_spt

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