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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.

 

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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.

 

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SpaceX is flying again

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 has successfully launched 10 Iridium satellites, and its first stage has also successfully landed on the barge.

The live view of the first stage landing was especially thrilling, using a camera on the stage, looking down to the Pacific Ocean. While there were a few dropouts, the picture stayed live for the entire descent.

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

6 comments

  • wayne

    Yes, way cool Mr. Z.!
    Best continuous video they’ve ever had and with spectacular vantage points.

  • LocalFluff

    Fantastic! From being as high as obviously seeing the curvature of the barge, to landing right on it within a couple of minutes. Again. And again.

    This is how the government does it with their top one priority vehicle:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5icV_mctrkE

  • wayne

    LocalFluff–
    yow… was not aware. That’s all it takes?

  • Desmond Murphy

    Great to see Spacex back in business. Here’s hoping all their future launches go as well. I’m really looking forward to Falcon heavy flying, hopefully this year.

  • wayne

    These launches are, quite amazing, on any number of different levels. Most excellent video as well.

    Mr Z.,
    I liked your spreadsheet from last week, speaks volumes unto itself. (and not to suggest cluttering it up, too much.. har)
    An interesting additional data-point might be “amount of stuff launched,” in some standard unit measure which people could easily relate.

  • ‘And that, gentlemen, is how we do that.’

    I hadn’t known about the airbrakes which appear to act as flight controls for terminal descent. I was also expecting the landing gear to deploy earlier than it did. The whole video I’m thinking ‘Wow. This is stuff we (private individuals) can do.’ Perhaps private space should be the buy-in for a national direction.

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