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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.

 

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Smoking battery at Rocket Lab facility

Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab is investigating why one of the rocket batteries for its Electron rocket started smoking over the weekend.

Rocket Lab is investigating what caused a rocket battery to overheat and start smoking at its manufacturing facility near Auckland Airport on Sunday night. Rocket Lab spokeswoman Morgan Bailey said fire emergency services were called as a precaution to its site in Mangere at 7pm on Sunday after a battery on an Electron rocket overheated and started smoking.

She said she did not know what action was being made on the rocket when the battery overheated, but the company was looking into it.

No one was hurt in the incident.

They are clearly being tight-lipped about this, partly because of the bad press it might cause and partly because they don’t wish to reveal proprietary information.

Note that this article has me rethinking Rocket Lab as an American company. Based on this article their operations and manufacturing are both in New Zealand. It seems that even if the company was conceived and officially incorporated in the U.S., the rocket is a New Zealand born baby.

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

  • wayne

    You bring up an interesting point, ref: a functional definition of an “American” company.
    I think it might be best to pick a definition, footnote it, and stick with it just to be consistent across time.
    (Many of our large, home-grown, name-brand Corporations, aren’t even based in the USA anymore, and/but, that’s an artifact of our Tax Code.)
    They undoubtedly wanted ready access to Capital and the Rule of Law, under our jurisdiction, while physically operating elsewhere in part.
    -It’s more of an aspirational trans-national or multi-national, type of company.

  • Edward

    Here is a video that says Electron uses lithium polymer batteries. It gives an overview of the company and rocket, for those who are unfamiliar with them.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdAAm4Rr8g8 (8 minutes)

    The video was made before Electron’s successful orbital flight.

    Robert,
    Wikipedia’s entry for Rocket Lab lists it as “a U.S. aerospace manufacturer with a wholly owned New Zealand subsidiary,” but the entry for the Electron rocket gives a country of origin as New Zealand. I don’t know if that helps you, but there it is. In addition, the entry has Moon Express’s MX-1 moon lander listed as scheduled for May of this year.

  • Andrew_W

    The man behind Rocket Lab is Peter Beck, he’s the driving force and American involvement only happened after the Rutherford engine had been successfully test fired, As I understand things his reasons for seeking US involvement were for financial reasons and to facilitate easier certification for various payloads.

  • Mike Borgelt

    Might also have to do with ITAR.
    As for Lithium polymer batteries a quick search on Youtube for “LiPo failures” will show heaps of videos.
    They are used in R/C model airplanes and need to be treated with utmost respect and care. Best to charge them in a fire and explosion proof kevlar bag. I wouldn’t do it in place in the vehicle.

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