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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.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. 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. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

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Behind The Black
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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.


Sierra Nevada has announced that it plans to do additional test flights in 2014 of its prototype Dream Chaser engineering test vehicle

Sierra Nevada has announced that it plans to do additional test flights in 2014 of its prototype Dream Chaser engineering test vehicle.

This is the same test vehicle that skidded off the runway during its first flight when one of its landing legs did not deploy. The company has never released any images of that smashup, but has said the craft was salvageable. I imagine this announcement is part of the continuing lobbying campaign by all the companies (SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada) competing in NASA’s commercial manned program. NASA is supposed to down select to two companies, maybe only one, by the end of the summer.

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

4 comments

  • I’m wondering why companies are competing to operate under NASA’s purview. Why not just develop the hardware and operating procedures, and open for business? Oh, right. All that Federal money.

  • Pzatchok

    Its not so much the cash. They would charge about the same to any other company that wants a launch.

    What they like about a contract with NASA are the guaranteed launches. Its guaranteed work with prearranged payments.
    Contracts are something they can use as collateral to gain more investments.

  • Kelly Starks

    Currently NASA is the bulk of the market anyone can find. Also securing that high profile contract gives you serious cred with any other market

    SNC is interesting in that they have been quietly building up a lot of expertise and cash flow. Wholly owned by the couple who bought them in ’91, no debts, about $3B a year in sales, and building up. I know a couple big announcements in the pipeline, and wouldn’t be surprised if they are building up toward a full up RLV not to long from now. Given they don’t have to answer to stockholders, they could go ahead and do it, where a Boeing, McDonnell Douglas, Lockheed/Martin couldn’t get it past stockholders who really are just pension fund managers. And they have more expertise and internal funds/capital then Musk had, and not the crippling ego unwilling/able to work with others. (SNC is happily teamed with both Boeing and L/M on Dream Chaser, even though they compete with both.)

  • Edward

    Much mention is made of the three companies that continue to receive NASA CCDev funding, and little is made of those companies that are doing as you suggest.

    Blue Origin continues development of its New Shepard spacecraft despite no longer receiving NASA funds.

    Pzatchok, below, is correct. One company (or maybe two) will end up with a NASA contract to taxi astronauts to the ISS for half a dozen-ish flights.

    Those not in the running – those doing as you suggest – will have to rely upon flights to other destinations, such as Bigelow inflatable space habitats.

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