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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 successfully launches 40 smallsats into orbit

Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully used its Falcon 9 rocket to launch 40 smallsats into orbit.

The first stage successfully landed on a drone ship, completing its seventh flight.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

12 SpaceX
8 China
4 Russia
2 ULA

The U.S. now leads China 18 to 8 in the national rankings.

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

2 comments

  • sippin_bourbon

    I was not sure if they would launch, with the solar activity the past few days. Same for the Rocketlab launch.

    After they had the debacle with starlink launch that got wiped out.

    Granted these sats probably have enough power to overcome the solar pressure.

  • Peter Monta

    I think the Starlink launches are quite a special case with regard to risk from solar activity. The Starlink birds uniquely spend a long time (days/weeks) in a very low orbit as they climb their way out. Ordinary launches like Transporter 4 and Rocket Lab-next are headed to 500 km-ish orbits right from the start (and don’t subsequently maneuver very much), so the few minutes they spend at sub-300 km represent negligible risk from elevated solar activity. Density is exponential in height, so fades very rapidly.

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