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I am now in the final week of my July fund-raising campaign for Behind the Black, celebrating its 14th anniversary. Thank you all, from the people who have donated small amounts to those who have given large sums. I cannot truly express how much your support means to me.

 

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. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.

 

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SpaceX leases several large facilities in Brownsville, Texas

Capitalism in space: In a clear sign that SpaceX plans to expand its Starship/Superheavy operations in Boca Chica, Texas, it has now leased several large facilities in nearby Brownsville.

Earlier this month, the company signed leases with the Brownsville South Padre Island Airport (BRO) for 46,000 square feet of warehouse space and a neighboring private industrial park owned by PacVentures for 60,000 square feet of warehouse space. Francisco Partida, the airport’s special projects manager, said talks with SpaceX about leasing the former Taylorcraft building at 2100 Les Mauldin Road began in mid-July.

The company was looking for 100,000 square feet of warehouse, which the airport couldn’t supply, though SpaceX found the additional square footage it needed in the privately owned industrial park at 1900 Billy Mitchell Blvd., he said.

SpaceX has also committed about a half million dollars to repairing and refurbishing the airport warehouse.

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 you can buy it directly from the author and get an autographed copy.

 
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

3 comments

  • V-Man

    Once they get Starship flying reliably, hold on to your hats. They are going to start cranking out so many copies of the suckers every month that Musk will have to open more side corporations (like Starlink) to generate loads for them: orbital hotels, space telescopes, Mars colony equipment, Moon base equipment, spacesuit manufacture…

  • Jeff Wright

    It has been willed from above…..Billy Mitchell Blvd.?

    Only SpaceX is worthy of being at that address.

  • Edward

    This shows that the economic model, which is often taught, that there is one pie to share, is wrong. If there is only one pie, then for one person to get rich, to get more pie, then others must necessarily get poorer, get less pie.

    One of the beauties of free market capitalism is that anyone can choose to bake more pie, perhaps of a different flavor than the one available pie*. If the baker cannot afford the ingredients or the equipment, then he can band together with others to pool money in order to afford to bake the pie. SpaceX is doing this in Brownsville. It is pooling money to build Starship and Starlink, and it is now sharing pie with Brownsville (trading pie for warehouse space). SpaceX’s services should lead to more products becoming available from space, adding even more pies to the economy. It is an upward spiral, spreading wealth and prosperity.

    * I am pondering running down to Marie Callender’s or some other pie shop to get a banana cream pie. I haven’t had a piece in a decade and all this talk of pies is beginning to give me a craving. I can always start another diet tomorrow.

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