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Readers!

 

The time has come for my annual short pre-Thanksgiving/Christmas fund drive for Behind The Black. I must do this every year in order to make sure I have earned enough money to pay my bills.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

As I noted in July, 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. 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. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally 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 four ways of doing so:

 

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September 17, 2021 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast

Embedded below the fold in two parts.

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

5 comments

  • Ron

    Bob,

    Am I being to sensitive in my reaction to this article from Reuters?

    https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/spacex-capsule-with-worlds-first-all-civilian-orbital-crew-set-splashdown-2021-09-18/

    To me, this article is so littered with envy and class warfare junk that it misses the historic accomplishment almost entirely. Small words like ‘affluent benefactor’ mentioning ‘billionaires’ several times derail the article…unless that was point?

    Am I wrong here?

  • Mark

    Ron & Bob,
    Around 3 years ago, on this site Mr. Zimmerman wrote this about how our cultural elites denigrated American achievement in Space:
    “The filmmakers for the Neil Armstrong biography film, First Man, made a conscious decision to hide or obscure the American flag in certain situations.
    This new information has been provided to me by a Washington consultant who, because of his own outrage over their decision to not show the planting of the American flag during the lunar landing, had been given the opportunity to see selected clips from the movie as well as ask questions to the production team.”
    The media network Reuters considers itself part of the information network of the global cultural elite. Therefore great achievements coming out of America are denigrated, while these same elites praise Chinese high speed rail, Chinese gleaming airports, and Chinese 5G and these elites conveniently downplay the corrupt to the core financing of those Chinese ‘achievements’.
    The American public has suffered from the propaganda narratives of Reuters and other globalist media since the 1990s. Only recently are some waking up.

  • Ron. In a word, no. You are not wrong. You describe the true sickness that is poisoning western civilization, not the flu-like respiratory disease that kills less than 1% of those who get sick, and even then generally focuses its mortality mostly among the elderly and sick.

  • Alton

    Being Elderly and an Sicko

    Rock On Z-Man……

  • Doubting Thomas

    Ron & Others – Share your observations. Looked around the Reuters site and could find no “Letters to the editors” button. Decided to use the Corrections button and this is what I submitted. Encourage others to do the same.

    I suggest you look hard at your article entitled SpaceX capsule with world’s first all-civilian orbital crew set for splashdown By Steve Gorman.

    Corrections Request to Thompson Reuters
    —————————————–
    Regarding your article SpaceX capsule with world’s first all-civilian orbital crew set for splashdown
    By Steve Gorman. I suggest you look carefully at it and correct errors and misleading statements.

    First the claim: “He had paid an undisclosed but reportedly enormous sum – put by Time magazine at roughly $200 million – to fellow billionaire Musk for all four seats aboard the Crew Dragon”. It would not take you long to find out that $100 million of that $200 million was a charitable donation to St Jude’s Children’s Cancer Research Hospital.

    Secondly. “The Inspiration4 crew had no part to play in flying the spacecraft, which was operated by ground-based flight teams and onboard guidance systems, even though Isaacman and Proctor are both licensed pilots” In fact, a little investigation on your part, will show that Issacman and Proctor operated the space capsule in an identical manner that each of the professional astronaut crews of both operational Commercial Crew flights of Dragon to the ISS. Again, a specification for the Commercial Crew contract calls for both SpaceX and Boeing commercial crew capsules to be automated.

    Third, your article fails to point out that during the flight the crew conducted medical research looking at the ability of non-specialized and selected people to go into space. On several occasions, Mr. Musk pointed out that the Inspiration4 flight opens the doors for not just wealthy tourists but for companies, universities or consortiums to fly independently for research and development..

    Finally, your article reeks of class envy and seems to avoid the laudable efforts of Mr Issacman and his fellow crewmates to use the flight to raise substantial funds for St Jude and to highlight the work that St Jude does. Further, the flight by Mr Issacman precisely supports the hope of NASA that commercial private space missions by private companies using the Commercial Crew vehicles will lower the costs for NASA and the nation to put human beings into low earth orbit.

    Sincerely

    XXXXX X XXXXXXXXXX

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