To read this post please scroll down.

 

Please forgive this pleading appeal. I am now doing my annual February fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black to celebrate my 73rd birthday. Your support, by donating or subscription, will allow me to continue this work as long as I am able. And I don't want to stop anytime soon.

 

And I do provide unique value. Fifteen years ago I said NASA's SLS rocket was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said its Orion capsule 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. And 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.

 

Nor am I making this up. My overall track record bears it out.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, 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. (Note: if your bank requests you also reference “Diane Zimmerman” in using my email address, do so. We are temporarily using one of her accounts, tied to my email address.)

 

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:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it 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.


SpaceX launches 25 more Starlink satellites

SpaceX this morning successfully placed another 25 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg in California.

The first stage completed its sixth flight, landing on a drone ship in the Pacific.

The 2026 launch race:

10 SpaceX
5 China
1 Rocket Lab

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

2 comments

  • Chuck

    If you didn’t notice, a couple of items for thought.

    One, a fairing half had a number of hexagonal tiles, looking remarkably like Starship tiles, mounted on it. Will be interesting to see if we hear anything about this (or future) test. Not sure what data they get from a fairing reentry, velocities are much lower compared to Starship.

    Two, the launch azimuth today was ~97.3°, which corresponds with a Sun-synchronous orbit at 470 km. Not their usual path. SECO velocity was correspondingly higher.

    And a final note: We never saw the actual payload. Hmm? Was it REALLY 25 Starlinks? Curious observers will want to look to the skies at local sunset/sunrise. Should be easy to spot!

    SpaceX, always throwing in little wrinkles when you least expect it.

  • Dick Eagleson

    Chuck,

    There are things about TPS tile aerodynamics other than raw resistance to heat to be learned. SpaceX has taken advantage of Falcon 9 missions before to enhance its knowledge and may well do so again.

    With all of the skilled sky-watchers out there – both professional and amateur – there would seem little point in attempted deception about either the nature or number of the payloads launched. The fact that the last two Starlink launches have been to this high inclination probably just indicates that SpaceX is now getting around to filling out the fraction of its constellation that can provide service in polar latitudes.

    Providing more coverage for direct-to-cell service at low bandwidth might be the motivator here. It might also be that SpaceX anticipates more US War Department business at such latitudes given recent developments anent Greenland.

Leave a Reply

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