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Readers! A November fund-raising drive!

 

It is unfortunately time for another November fund-raising campaign to support my work here at Behind the Black. I really dislike doing these, but 2025 is so far turning out to be a very poor year for donations and subscriptions, the worst since 2020. I very much need your support for this webpage to survive.

 

And I think I provide real value. Fifteen years ago I said SLS was garbage and should be cancelled. Almost a decade ago I said Orion was a lie and a bad idea. As early as 1998, long before almost anyone else, I predicted in my first book, Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, that private enterprise and freedom would conquer the solar system, not government. Very early in the COVID panic and continuing throughout I noted that every policy put forth by the government (masks, social distancing, lockdowns, jab mandates) was wrong, misguided, and did more harm than good. In planetary science, while everyone else in the media still thinks Mars has no water, I have been reporting the real results from the orbiters now for more than five years, that Mars is in fact a planet largely covered with ice.

 

I could continue with numerous other examples. If you want to know what others will discover a decade hence, read what I write here at Behind the Black. And if you read my most recent book, Conscious Choice, you will find out what is going to happen in space in the next century.

 

 

This last claim might sound like hubris on my part, but I base it on my overall track record.

 

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SpaceX successfully launches 50 Starlink satellites

Capitalism in space: SpaceX today successfully launched another 50 Starlink satellites using its Falcon 9 rocket.

The first stage, on its fourth flight, landed successfully on the drone ship in the Pacific. The fairings completed their third flight. The satellites themselves have not yet been deployed, as of this moment. Deployment is expected in about an hour.

The leaders in the 2022 launch race:

8 SpaceX
2 China
2 Russia

SpaceX is so far maintaining a launch rate of one launch per week in ’22, as the company had predicted.

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

10 comments

  • geoffc

    And launches coming Mar 3rd and 7th for more Starlinks, keeping up that pace.

  • pzatchok

    How far away can these launches be seen?

    I am thinking of buying land in the area just to watch the launches.

  • Ray Van Dune

    “The first stage, on its fourth flight, landed successfully on the drone ship in the Pacific.”

    A better phrase than “landed successfully” would be “nailed the landing…” It was dead center.

  • Sayomara

    I wonder in real costs what each of these starlink launches is costing Spacex. Between recovery, rehab of the rocket(even if its small its some), transport, fuel.

    Its a lot less than a most other launch companies but its still not nothing and where is starlink getting when it comes to covering that cost.

  • wayne

    Sayomara-
    –this has come up recently in the comments (SpaceX’s internal costs for Starlink) and I think it’s entirely safe to say, they are THE low-cost provider, on the face of the Earth. It’s orders of magnitude lower than anyone.

  • Jeff Wright

    The only good thing this year…but it feels SpaceX used up the planet’s good luck. My co-worker was murdered trying to get out of an abusive relationship…I have oil in the radiator and am too broke to fix it…the sacking of Kiev…

  • Col Beausabre

    “the sacking of Kiev”

    For a thorough job of that you need the Mongols. I wonder if there’s any Mongolian mercenaries out there?

    https://medieval2.heavengames.com/m2tw/history/historical_battles_folder/sack_kiev/

  • Alton

    Pzatchok

    A Quick look—-

    Google Crud:
    If you are close to the east coast, near to the Cape Canaveral launch platform, then you will have a prime position to watch the launch. Cape Canaveral launch viewing is also possible from further away. Larger rockets like the SpaceX Falcon Heavy can be seen after take off from distances up to around 700km away.
    ___________

    From Quora:

    https://www.quora.com/When-a-rocket-launches-from-Cape-Canaveral-how-far-away-can-you-be-and-still-see-the-rocket-as-it-climbs-into-space

  • Edward

    Sayomara,
    wayne is correct, we had this discussion a few weeks ago, and I think that the figure was at least $15 million but probably less than $28 million.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zku7Hstjv8A#t=1179

    If SpaceX is doing it right, the launch side of the company charges the Starlink side the full price, otherwise the investors in the launchers are subsidizing the investors in the Starlink by more than $20 million per launch. Either way, the cost for a Starlink launch is less on a Falcon 9 than on pretty much any other launcher.

  • pzatchok

    As for the cost of a Falcon 9 launch.

    Its what ever the seller and buyer agree on.

    If you actually want the true cost so you know the profit margin Musk is making. Well that’s his business.

    I bet the recovery costs of the rocket and fairings are under a million by now. The boats should be paid for by now.
    The fuel is less than a million.
    And if all he has to replace is the second stage then I bet that’s about than 5 million.
    Counting in labor and other costs I bet a relaunch is about 10 million total. Everything over that is profit.

    Triple that 10 mill to cover total replacements and future costs and that is pretty much what he is charging.

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