September 13, 2024 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
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Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
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The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in this year has the propaganda mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuse to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
Regarding the FAA not yet approving the catching of the returning booster on the chopstick arms, NSF says flight 5 is authorized by the FAA to fly the same profile as flight 4. Shouldn’t SpaceX accept that approval and launch flight 5 now? That would test the redesigned Starship flaps and show that Starship can return to a controlled landing. And it would show that the booster can come down without any failing engines.
Steve Richter asked: “Regarding the FAA not yet approving the catching of the returning booster on the chopstick arms, NSF says flight 5 is authorized by the FAA to fly the same profile as flight 4. Shouldn’t SpaceX accept that approval and launch flight 5 now?”
NASASpaceflight has a 17-minute update, which I set to 6-1/2 minutes where they discuss flight 5, including discussions about the FAA and other topics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=elaiPXk4I3Y#t=393
“… NASASpaceflight has a 17-minute update, which I set to 6-1/2 minutes where they discuss flight 5, including discussions about the FAA and other topics: …”
NSF does a very good job.
There has to be something else going on because it seems so obvious to accept the approval to launch flight 5 now. Starship has multiple milestones still to be achieved. Keep flaps intact. Don’t lose heat tiles. Land on a drone ship. Deploy starlink satellites. Transfer fuel. It is a bird in the hand type of decision. Why is flight 5 not launching this week?