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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

No matter. I am here, and here I intend to stay. If you like what I do and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.

 

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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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