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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.

 

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Starship/Superheavy test launch scrubbed

Though the countdown got down to T-40 seconds, the eighth orbital test launch of SpaceX’s Starship/Superheavy was scrubbed today due to a number of issues that popped up relating to both spacecraft.

At the moment we do not know exactly what those issues were, and will likely never get detailed explanations. Nor do we know when the next launch attempt will occur, though SpaceX has additional scheduled opportunities over the next week.

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

3 comments

  • Jeff Wright

    An odd chain of events T-40…then the countdown to -35…but then up to T-41.

    What, did one of Elon’s kids play with the clock?

  • Gealon

    They probably cleared one problem, restarted the countdown and then another popped up and automatically halted the count again. Or things were happening in control faster than could be reported, but essentially the same thing, cleared one problem, count was restarted and then another popped up and they decided to scrub.

  • Edward

    Jeff Wright asked: “An odd chain of events T-40…then the countdown to -35…but then up to T-41. What, did one of Elon’s kids play with the clock?

    On the SpaceX feed (you may have watched another), the hosts were explaining that T -0:00:40 was a hold point that the controllers could use, if necessary. That also meant that if they had to hold after T -40 seconds, then they would have to recycle back to that time. They originally held at T -40 due to a booster problem that they had had for about half an hour, but by the time they cleared that problem during the hold, there were other Starship (upper stage) problems cropping up.

    They also explained that once the deluge started, about T -10 seconds, any hold after that would result in a scrub for the day, because they cannot stop the water, and they only have enough in the tanks for one shot.

    Today I heard that the unsolved problem, responsible for the scrub, was in the pressure for one of the spin-up lines for the Starship. If the engine turbine does not spin-up properly, then the engine does not start properly.

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