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The time has come for my annual short pre-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 successfully launches commercial satellite

11:40 pm

The competition heats up: SpaceX tonight successfully launched Echostar 23.

This launch is almost four weeks after their last launch, which sent a Dragon capsule to ISS. Their goal this year has been to do one launch every two weeks, a goal they have not yet reached. The next launch, which will also place a commercial communications satellite into orbit, is tentatively set for March 27, and will also be the first launch that reuses a first stage. If they make that happen it will be first time they have hit the two week launch rate this year. They will then try to follow with another Dragon resupply mission, this time reusing a Dragon capsule for the first time.

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

5 comments

5 comments

  • jhon
    March 16, 2017 at 2:44 pm

    After months of waiting, The Brazilians can finally watch TV again

  • wodun
    March 16, 2017 at 3:28 pm

    jhon
    March 16, 2017 at 2:44 pm
    After months of waiting, The Brazilians can finally watch TV again

    Could you imagine what would happen in the USA if there was no TV or internet to watch entertainment on? It wouldn’t be the mass reading of books that I know.

  • Edward
    March 16, 2017 at 5:19 pm

    Hosted webcast (my favorite type):
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suYE3igjxIo (54 minutes)

    Technical webcast (no jibber jabber)
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIfl2krO7yY (48 minutes)

    wodun,
    Before the internet and TV there were radio and movie theaters. And families used to sing and read newspapers.

  • wayne
    March 16, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    wodun– oh yeah, far too many people in the United States would meltdown if their internet & TV went dark. “First World Problems.”

    Edward–
    In general, I love me some jibber-jabber, but I prefer the technical webcast from SpaceX.

    totally tangential, but communication-related and I know there are some radio-people out there–
    ran across a video on an absolutely yuge AM radio transmitter in Mason, Ohio. The only station to ever transmit at such a high power.
    “WLW’s 500,000 Watt Transmitter”
    https://youtu.be/CbHjcwIoTiY
    (31:43)
    Founded by Powel Crosley. He began broadcasting from his garage at 20 watts in the early 1920’s & started an AM radio-set factory, shortly thereafter he formed WLW 700-am, and kept increasing the power on a regular basis.
    They went from 50K watts to 500K watts in 1932. The whole transmitter is the height of analog design & technology. Truly massive, direct-current powered, with 2 foot tall water-cooled vacuum tubes and assorted support infrastructure that is steam-punk esque.

  • Dick Eagleson
    March 17, 2017 at 4:42 am

    As the FCC was created in 1934, I have to figure that WLW just got grandfathered in. The FCC certainly wouldn’t license a new half-megawatt AM transmitter these days.

    That is not, by the way, an implication that I agree with the FCC on that point. As far as I’m concerned, a radio station should be able to broadcast at any signal strength it wants so long as it has clear-channel permission. There are numerous AM stations outside the U.S. that broadcast with more power than the FCC maximum of 50,000 watts. I would draw a line if a transmitter generated ball lightning and annoyed the nearby livestock.

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