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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.

 

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
 
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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 another 28 Starlink satellites

SpaceX in the wee hours last night successfully placed another 28 Starlink satellites into orbit, its Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from the Kennedy Space Centery in Florida.

The first stage completed its 27th flight, landing on a drone ship in the Atlantic. SpaceX now has one booster with 30 flights and three with 27 flights, putting these stages in the same league with the three most flown space shuttles, Discovery (39), Atlantis (33), and Columbia (28). Expect these boosters to all pass Discovery in the near future, with several more Falcon 9 boosters about to enter this league as well.

The leaders in the 2025 launch race:

113 SpaceX
48 China
12 Rocket Lab
11 Russia

SpaceX now leads the rest of the world in successful launches, 113 to 85.

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

  • pzatchok

    Actually watched this launch on tv.

    It was pretty nice. Good video.

    At this rate ,if the Falcon 9 keeps flying, it could pass the Soyuz for most flights and do it in 15 years or so.
    All just a guess though. But i do expect them to just keep using the Falcon 9 to maintain the satellite network.
    The BFR would have far better work to do.

  • Jeff Wright

    Well, if Falcon 9 does pass R-7 (which I think likely) that means Starship was no good.

    Even if Starship gets better, Elon better keep Starlinks atop Falcon until he gets the record just to be safe.

    If Starship partially comes apart while in a proper orbit–those BFR dreams are kaputnik.

  • Richard M

    Expect these boosters to all pass Discovery in the near future, with several more Falcon 9 boosters about to enter this league as well.

    SpaceX’s VP for launch, Kiko Dontchev, has just said that 40 reuses is their present goal.

    https://x.com/TurkeyBeaver/status/1961129414311514141

    I assume that means with the present fleet of first stage boosters. As they continue to learn and tweak things, future production runs may well be aiming for even more reuses.

    Certainly with B1067 hitting 30 last week, it seems possible now!

  • Richard M

    One other note: Dr Joel C. Sercel marked the 500th launch and landing of an orbital class rocket by SpaceX on Friday with this anecdote on X;

    I did a series of consulting contracts for an east coast government customer in the 2011-2014 time evaluation for SpaceX for launching [U.S. government] payloads. Everyone else working on the project spent the whole time badmouthing SpaceX. I felt like the only guy saying, “no, this can work!” I had people literally laugh me off the stage when I said they would be doing two launches a week with F9. I was on a panel for the National Academy when they ridiculed me. I asked the CTO of a then-launch vehicle company what they were going to do if I was right, and he said, “Get out of the launch business”. That happened. TransAstra is launching a payload to ISS in two weeks on that company’s carrier vehicle launched by an F9.

    https://x.com/JoelSercel/status/1963984418042937615

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