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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


SpaceX completes 31st launch in 2022, matching its entire output in 2021

Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched 53 Starlink satellites with its Falcon 9 rocket, completing its 31st launch in 2022, matching the company’s entire output for all 2021 in only a little more than six months.

The first stage completed its 13th mission.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

31 Space
23 China
9 Russia
5 Rocket Lab
4 ULA

American private enterprise now leads China 44 to 23 in the national rankings, and the entire world combined 44 to 39.

SpaceX is targeting 60 launches in 2022. With the year just a little more than half over, it is setting a pace capable of achieving that goal.

Readers!

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows 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.

 

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7 comments

  • sippin_bourbon

    Good Sir…
    Minor typo?
    “American private enterprise now leads China 44 to 31…”

  • Thank you sippin_bourbon. Fixed.

  • Ray Van Dune

    By my recollection this is the third Falcon 9 booster to complete 13 launch and landings. Nobody else has done even one of an orbital class rocket, and nobody else is even working on developing the capability, other than perhaps at the intentional / conceptual level! Amazing.

  • David K

    I watched this with my 3 year old today. He thought the launch and view of space was cool but he thought the landing was boring.

    “Daddy after it lands, do you have to wait for the seatbelt sign to turn off before you can get up? What if you have to go potty?”

    It is really good to see these landings so routine that they are starting to get boring

  • Jay

    Ray,
    China is making a blatant knockoff of the Falcon-9 called the Nebula-1 under the “company” name DeepBlue. Recently they completed their 20th design of a reusable engine called the Thunder R-1. Take a look at their design online, it also uses nine of these Thunder R-1 engines, and they want to do their first test by the end of 2023.

  • sippin_bourbon

    Ray, RocketLab is developing Neutron, from the ground up, as re-usable, as well as converting electron for re-use.

    Neutron is rather interesting as it has several ideas not tried before, with some “out of the box” thinking going into the design.

    I am really wanting to see if they can make it work, or if they will have to revert to more conventional design.

  • Jeff Wright

    Still no OTRAG or Sea Dragon though. Pressure feds get no love.

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