To read this post please scroll down.

 

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.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:

 

4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.


SpaceX successfully launches commercial satellite

Capitalism in space: SpaceX has successfully launched a commercial satellite using a previously flown first stage.

They did not attempt to recover the used first stage as it was one of their older stages, which they are clearing out as they move to the final Block 5 version of the Falcon 9.

The top leaders in the 2018 launch race:

16 China
11 SpaceX
5 Russia
5 ULA

In the national standings the U.S. has moved back ahead of China, 17-16.

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

7 comments

  • Sayomara

    I seem to remember reading somewhere a while back the next Falcon heavy launch is going to use two block 5 side busters. If that is the case they will need a few. Which at this point only one block 5 has been recovered and that is going to be torn down for engineering reasons.

    Considering the slow roll out of the Block 5 it seems Spacex is having some issues. But I guess better slow and steady than your rocket blowing up. We haven’t heard anything about central booster for the next falcon heavy being tested either. Just seems a lot less news than we normally hear from Spacex. Or i could have missed it

  • David

    Sayomara, what is this “slow rollout” you speak of? One of the high level SpaceX engineers was quoted as saying the Block 5 development campaign was their most successful and fastest major project to date, beating all their previous upgrade and development cycles. They had a backlog of block 4 boosters in storage that they would obviously want to fly just to free up that barn space, and they are producing Block 5 boosters to take over once those are all gone. There is only 1 more block 4 booster left in the queue, after that it’s all Block 5. You’re assuming that they are “having some issues” because, what? This is actually looking like a quite successful and rapid rollout. Are you just anti-SpaceX, or have your expectations been raised so high that you just expected to see an instant conversion to nothing but block 5 launches every week once the first one flew?

  • Diane Wilson

    I believe Elon said he had only one more usable flight-proven booster in inventory. So they’ll need Block 5s for July manifest.

    I can believe that early Block 5s will get extra testing, but I haven’t heard anything about new Block 5 boosters at McGregor. The lack of news is curious.

  • Gene

    conservative

  • Michael

    Is a block 5 a block 5 without the new copv or in reality a block 5 test bed?

    Does anyone know the status of the new copv?

  • Diane Wilson

    Last rumor I read was that the new COPV would fly on the first Dragon 2 demo flight, in August.

  • sayomara

    David I was mostly talking about the delays with the BANGABANDHU SATELLITE-1 launch. The Launch was delayed almost 6 weeks. Clearly something wasn’t working right to have almost a month of delays. I would rather they get it right than something blowing up but there have clearly been delays

Readers: the rules for commenting!

 

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

 

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

 

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *