Scroll down to read this post.

 

Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. I keep the website clean from pop-ups and annoying demands. Instead, I depend entirely on my readers to support me. Though this means I am sacrificing some income, it also means that I remain entirely independent from outside pressure. By depending solely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, no one can threaten me with censorship. You don't like what I write, you can simply go elsewhere.

 

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:

4. A Paypal subscription:


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.


SpaceX completes static fire test of three engines on Superheavy prototype #7

Capitalism in space: SpaceX yesterday successfully completed the first static fire test of more than one engine on its Superheavy prototype #7, firing three engines for five seconds.

NASASpaceflight livestreamed the test, and its footage suggests that only two engines may have fully lit up, with the third perhaps aborting. Whether or not the third Raptor joined the party, however, it was still the first multi-engine Super Heavy static fire that SpaceX has performed.

I have embedded that footage below. Expect more such tests in the coming days. If all works as planned (something we should not expect as this remains a development program), the tests will culminate in an orbital test flight sending Starship on a one orbit mission around the Earth. At present SpaceX wants that flight to occur before the end of this year.


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 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

3 comments

  • Jeff Wright

    HLLVs take time and commitment. Blowing up otherwise conventional Falcons every other landing attempt in the early days? That was one thing. This demands a less cavalier approach.

  • GaryMike

    It’s been crudely enjoyable watching SpaceX drive the rest of the industry into involuntary fits of innovation.

    Once again, really smart people who have to play catch-up.

    Embarrassing that they all need to be buying vowels.

    What are we paying them for?

  • Edward

    GaryMike wrote: “It’s been crudely enjoyable watching SpaceX drive the rest of the industry into involuntary fits of innovation.

    It hasn’t been just SpaceX. Blue Origin thought that they were leading the way, but then they bogged down. Rocket Lab is also eager to lead innovative ideas. There have been other attempts to implement ideas that have yet to be used, such as the aerospike engine. Reaction Engines Ltd. in the U.K. is innovating an air-breathing rocket engine to save weight on the O2 carried in the lower atmosphere, and they intend to use it on their Skylon single stage to orbit rocket.

    The main innovations that are needed would be to reduce prices and increase availability of launches. This is why Robert noted that if SpaceX meets its goal of 100 launches next year then it, by itself, will have launched more than the whole world’s annual launches for almost three decades, from 1991 through 2017.
    https://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/essays-and-commentaries/in-2022-freedom-continues-to-fuel-the-launch-industry-towards-new-records/

    In the 1990s, it was believed that if launch prices dropped to $2,000 per pound then there would be a great demand for launch services, and this seems to be the case. Commercial use of space is expanding beyond just communications, and communications is expanding, too.

    It remains to be seen whether sheer mass or volume of payload on a single Starship launch vehicle drives the market, but in the meantime SpaceX plans to put up an extremely large number of satellites in constellations, so it is currently its own customer (is there a word for that?) and only customer (monopsony) for large-mass payloads. Hopefully, other companies will soon launch their heavy space station modules on Starship or a future heavy-launch competitor.

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *