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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.

 

So please consider donating or subscribing to Behind the Black, either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. I could really use the support at this time. There are five 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’s test vertical-landing rocket Grasshopper successfully climbed to 250 meters in its most recent test flight.

The competition heats up: SpaceX’s test vertical-landing rocket Grasshopper successfully climbed to 250 meters in its most recent test flight.

Video below the fold.

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

9 comments

  • Greg

    So cool. Where is NASA’s version?

  • 1. Replace spindly landing legs with V-2-style fins

    2. Add swept wings

    3. Paint with red-and-white checkerboard pattern

    4. ???

    5. PROFIT!

  • Chris Kirkendall

    Definitely looks like they may be able to make this idea work. I was particularly impressed with its ability to just hover nearly motionless before descending back to the pad…

  • Scott

    Right out of my 50″s movie introduction to space travel. Back in “the old days” we never considered multistage vehicles or splashdowns in the ocean. Back then you could just hop in a rocket, blast off, and go to mars – have lunch – and return all in the same V2 shaped machine. Life was so much simpler when I was 10.

  • Steve C

    Have they been able to match the DC-X’s performance from back in the 90’s?

  • That would require them to blow off a panel in flight, then land successfully. “Oh god, oh god, we’re all going to die.”

  • Pzatchok

    Isn’t this supposed to be a prototype of a first and second stage rocket recovery plan?

    If this works they can use parachutes to slow down a falling first or second stage and then use the lift engines and a little left over fuel to land the rockets intact?

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