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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.

 

2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation. Takes about a 10% cut.
 

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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.


Successful Rocket Lab launch and descent of 1st stage

Capitalism in space: Rocket Lab today successfully used its Electron rocket to 30 smallsats into orbit from its launchpad in New Zealand.

They also did their first launch test of their planned method for recovering the first stage for reuse. In their case the first stage will use parachutes to slow its descent, and will then be grabbed by a helicopter to be brought back to land. On this launch they were only testing the parachute portion of this plan, and allowed the stage to land in the water, where they then recovered it.

The leaders in the 2020 launch race:

30 China
20 SpaceX
12 Russia
5 ULA
5 Rocket Lab

The U.S. now leads China 33 to 30 in the national rankings.

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

6 comments

  • wayne

    Cool stuff.
    –> Enjoyed the lovely Ariana Ryan color commentary as well.

  • Steve Richter

    “… the first stage will use parachutes to slow its descent, and will then be grabbed by a helicopter to …”

    I assume this is outmoded technology compared to how SpaceX recovers its first stages. Meaning if SpaceX open sourced its tech, RocketLab would be able to launch at a lower cost. And maybe both companies benefit in that engineers would be better able to move from company to company, sharing what they know, applying their skills more efficiently.

  • Andrew_W

    Steve Richter, the helicopter grab makes sense for objects small enough to be grabbed by a helicopter, the SpaceX 1st stage is too large for that method.

  • David

    Outmoded is the wrong way to look at it. They covered this when they announced their plan. Falcon 9 is a large, heavy launcher that has plenty of reserve dV and can afford the extra mass of landing legs and fuel for the re-entry and landing burns. Electron has a much tighter dV budget, but is also smaller and lighter, so the parachutes are correspondingly smaller, lighter, and easier to develop. And catching it with a helicopter sounds low-tech, but it means no landing legs are needed, nor do they need a barge and the slow travel time back to a port where it can be lifted off by crane and then transported by truck to a refurbishing facility. I don’t think RocketLab has provided these details, but if the helicopter is delivering the booster right to the refurb site, their turnaround time could possibly be faster than SpaceX manages.

  • pzatchok

    I would like to Rocket lab use the same type of system Space X is using for their fairing recovery.

    Steerable parachutes.

    The helicopter catch is still a dangerous maneuver.

    Would a water landing be that detrimental to a properly prepped rocket?

  • Andrew_W

    The Electron first stage is seen in the Pacific Ocean in this image shared by Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck on Twitter. Credit: Rocket Lab via Peter Beck
    https://spaceflightnow.com/2020/11/20/rocket-lab-recovers-booster-after-launch-with-30-small-satellites/

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