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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.
 

3. A Paypal Donation or subscription, which takes about a 15% cut:

 

4. Donate by check. I get whatever you donate. Make the check payable to Robert Zimmerman and mail it to
 
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
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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.


The payloads to be carried on the first Ariane-6 launch

With the first Ariane-6 rocket now being stacked for its first test flight sometime in the June-July timeframe, a European Space Agency (ESA) press release today touted the payloads the rocket will carry.

All told, the rocket will carry nine cubesats, two satellite deploy systems, two test re-entry capsules, and five experimental payloads. That only four are government payloads, with the rest from a variety of private companies, once again illustrates ESA’s shift from running everything. It is acting to encourage commercial operations that are establishing capabilities that it once would have demanded it do. Instead it will be the customer for these things in the future.

The two re-entry capsules might be the most interesting payloads of all. Both are private, from ArianeGroup and the French company The Exploration Company. The latter is developing its own Nyx cargo freighter, comparable to Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus capsule, aimed at providing cargo services to the many commercial space stations presently being built. This test flight is apparently designed to prove out some of the company’s re-entry technology.

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

3 comments

  • Ray Van Dune

    “The two re-entry capsules might be the most interesting payloads of all… (including the) Nyx cargo freighter, comparable to Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus capsule…”

    Unfortunately Cygnus was not a “re-entry” capsule, but burned-up on reentry, making it the de facto trash disposal system for the ISS.

    On the other hand, Cygnus could boost the ISS orbit as required, like the Russian Progress freighter. The SpaceX Dragon capsule (manned or freight version) cannot perform this function. Nyx’s abilities here are not mentioned.

    Thus the comparableness of the Nyx to the Cygnus seems to be somewhat open to question.

    Ps. I have read that, with the discontinuation of the NG Antares booster, Cygnus will continue to service the ISS, boosted by the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

  • Dick Eagleson

    Ray,

    Good call about the Nyx capsule. It will be – assuming it reaches operational service -more comparable to Cargo Dragon than to Cygnus.

    Anent Cygnus, Antares has not been discontinued so much as killed off by geopolitics. Its erstwhile 1st stage structure was made in Ukraine in a factory which is now rubble. It’s engines were made in Russia and are now embargoed. Firefly is designing and building a new first stage for an upgraded version of Antares that is scheduled to debut ca. two years hence. In the interim, Cygnus will launch on Falcon 9.

  • Ray Van Dune

    “Firefly is designing and building a new first stage for an upgraded version of Antares that is scheduled to debut ca. two years hence. In the interim, Cygnus will launch on Falcon 9.”

    I have a hunch that the new booster, the Antares 330, is going to have a tough time competing with the F9 costwise, especially 2 years from now. And it is not reusable!

    You know what is my first reaction when I hear about millions being poured into designing a new non-reusable rocket?

    “Hey, did you hear about Russell Wilson going to the Steelers?”

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