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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 to launch Luna-25 on August 11, 2023


Click for interactive map.

According to reports in Russia’s state run press, the new launch date for its Luna-25 lander to the Moon has now been scheduled for August 11, 2023.

The launch of an automatic space probe to the Moon, the Luna-25, is scheduled for August 11 this year, the tour operator RocketTrip has said on its website. “August 11 is the launch date,” the website says in the section devoted to the tour to the Vostochny spaceport for the launch of the Luna-25.

The launch had been scheduled for July. The one month delay was announced last week, with no explanation.

The map shows landing locations of three landers that are all scheduled for launch in the next four months. All are targeting spots near the Moon’s south pole (the white cross).

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. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. 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

6 comments

  • mkent

    There is also Peregrine and SLIM.

  • mkent: Tell me more about SLIM. I am unfamiliar with that acronym.

  • mkent

    SLIM is the Smart Lander for Investigating the Moon. It’s being built by the Japanese space agency JAXA and is currently scheduled to launch in August as a co-passenger on the XRISM H-2A launch.

  • The book is open for ‘Water Ice at the Lunar South Pole’ action.

    No recoverable water ice at the Pole.

    Some recoverable water ice, but not enough to support a base.

    It’s a resource!

    Put your quatloos down now.

  • mkent: Ah, I had forgotten about SLIM. However, according to https://www.rocketlaunch.live/, the H2A launch of SLIM is now tentatively scheduled for September, but even that date is uncertain because of the investigation into the H3 launch failure.

    As for Peregrine, I should have been more clear, as I was focused solely on the landers aiming for the South Pole region.

  • mkent

    Ahh. My apologies. Then forget about SLIM as well. JAXA is planning to land it in the Marius Hills near a possible lunar lava tube.

    As for the H-2A, the last I heard is that the H-3 failure mode has been determined to have no commonality to the H-2A, clearing the H-2A for flight. A new launch date has been chosen and will be announced by JAXA later this month.

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