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The time has come for my annual short 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.

 

For this two-week campaign, I am offering a special deal to encourage donations. Donations of $200 will get a free autographed copy of the new paperback edition of Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, while donations of $250 will get a free autographed copy of the new hardback edition. If you desire a copy, make sure you provide me your address with your donation.

 

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.

 

In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.

 

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SpaceX launches another 48 Starlink satellites

Using its Falcon 9 rocket, SpaceX today successfully launched another 48 Starlink satellites, lifting off from Vandenberg Space Force Base.

The first stage completed its twelfth flight, landing softly on a drone ship in the Pacific. The two fairing halves completed their fourth and seventh flights respectively.

The leaders in the 2023 launch race:

45 SpaceX
24 China
9 Russia
5 Rocket Lab

In successful launches, American private enterprise now leads China 51 to 24 in the national rankings, while SpaceX by itself leads the entire world combined, excluding American companies, 45 to 42.

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

8 comments

  • Richard Malcolm

    Interestingly, both the Wall Street Journal and Space News have stories up today about the de facto monopoly SpaceX now enjoys, what with all of its primary competitors in the US, Europe and Japan caught between two stools of retired legacy rockets and delayed replacement ones, and the Russians no longer available.

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX Now Has a ‘De Facto’ Monopoly on Rocket Launches
    The company’s rockets are ferrying astronauts, launching satellites and dominating any competition
    By Micah Maidenberg
    https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musks-spacex-now-has-a-de-facto-monopoly-on-rocket-launches-3c34f02e

    Europe leans on SpaceX to bridge launcher gap
    By Jeff Foust
    https://spacenews.com/europe-leans-on-spacex-to-bridge-launcher-gap/

    Kind of wild how it has all worked out: every competitor stumbling, just as SpaceX reaches unprecedented launch cadence.

  • Col Beausabre

    “GRIFTING CON MAN MUSKS FAILS AGAIN” – says MSN and CNN

  • Ray Van Dune

    Not only are Russian rockets off the table, but so are the relatively high performance and reliable Russian engines.

    Of course that was the trap that ULA walked into – use cheap Russian engines until they were illegal, then use vaporware BO engines, then when SpaceX had hired all the hot talent, screw up the update of the ultra-reliable Centaur into something that blowed up real good!

    Meanwhile, SpaceX is learning to build the world’s best engine at rate!

  • pzatchok

    Space X didn’t hire all the best talent. They were already working for the other guys.

    They hired good talent and worked it and trained it until they became the talent everyone else wants.

    Its like a sports team. They hired good mangers and good coaches then found good solid talent to train up into what they needed.
    Now the team is great and everyone wants them.

  • Ray Van Dune

    pzatchok, I don’t have the knowledge to define SpaceX’s specific team-building practices. As you do, thanks for the information. Our points boil down to the same thing – SpaceX has done what everyone else talks about and invested in the highest quality team. And it is paying off.

  • Jeff Wright

    Pzatchok….

    So Musk can beat their’n with his’n and his’n with their’n 😀

  • pzatchok

    It took Musk over 15 years to make that talent.

    I do not know exactly how he made his team but I bet it was thew same way everyone else who rises to the top does.

  • Jeff Wright

    I want to see Musk and Nick Saban in the same room. Zuckerberg can push off.

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