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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 sets February 6 for first Falcon Heavy launch attempt

Capitalism in space: SpaceX has now scheduled February 6 as the date for its first attempt to launch its Falcon Heavy rocket.

I was amused by this tidbit from the article:

While a launch date has been set, the company still faces a regulatory obstacle ahead of the launch. The Federal Aviation Administration’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation has not yet issued a launch license for the Falcon Heavy, a requirement for a commercial launch such as this. Such licenses are often issued days ahead of a launch.

I dare the FAA to deny this launch a license. I just dare them.

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

9 comments

  • Joe From Houston

    We will see the battle for access to space right here, right now. It is long overdue.

  • ken anthony

    The moment the govt. says no, Elon will break ground on a new facility.

  • Michael

    No license no launch – new facility or no

  • wodun

    This will be the first SpaceX launch that I will go out of my way to watch for a long time. There is a lot of drama in the first flights/landings but there is also a lot of schedule slippage that makes trying to watch one a crap shoot. I am prepared for there to be no launch.

  • ken anthony

    Michael, there are plenty of island countries that would love to have their own space program. No licence just takes the FAA out of the picture.

    Govt. has its place. What most don’t realize is that place is not to tell us what we can or can’t do. England learned that lesson in 1776. America is working hard to relearn that lesson today (with more powerful fireworks.)

    CA is working on their 1860 lesson.

  • wayne

    ken–
    ref; “CA is working on their 1860 lesson.”
    >Good stuff!

    Alanis Morissette –
    Ironic
    https://youtu.be/Jne9t8sHpUc

  • Michael

    Ken

    This is true with respect to island countries. That’s where ITAR comes in.

    Don’t get me wrong. I am a strong supporter of SpaceX. I do not trust the government, to include NASA. SpaceX (and some others) is on the verge of making NASA irrelevant with the exception of unmanned science and planetary type missions, and maybe technology development.

    NASA is starting to become aware of this and bureaucracies will do anything to survive.

    I sometimes think that NASA should go back to the NACA model.

    I think we agree in the essentials but I guess I maybe be more paranoid that you.

  • Mike Borgelt

    yes, NASA needs to be NASRO – National Aero Space Research Office for technology development and another organisation called Office of Solar System Exploration – OSSE

  • ken anthony

    Right Mike, but remember, it ain’t really paranoia if they really are out to get ya!

    Watch what entirely predictable happens on mars. First they don’t care. Then when people make it valuable hey’ll claim to own it (for all of mankind’s bureaucrats.)

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