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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.


ULA completes its 4th launch this year and last Atlas-5 launch for the Space Force

Though ULA’s Atlas-5 rocket still has a number of launches on its manifest before it is retired, early this morning the company successfully completed the last Atlas-5 launch for the Space Force, the rocket lifting off from Cape Canaveral in Florida.

This was ULA’s fourth launch in 2024, the most in a year for the company since 2022. The leader board for this year’s launch race remains unchanged:

74 SpaceX
31 China
8 Rocket Lab
8 Russia

American private enterprise however now leads the rest of the world combined in successful launches 87 to 47, while SpaceX by itself still leads the entire world combined, including American companies, 74 to 60.

Note: A Rocket Lab that had been scheduled for today has been delayed two days.

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

  • Steve White

    Imagine if SpaceX wasn’t around, and the USA (ULA and others) had but 13 launches to show for the year.

  • Ray Van Dune

    Every time I see a non-Falcon launch now I feel like something is missing… oh yeah, the landing! Funny how strange it is to see everyone else just throw their multimillions in hardware away, when it used to be so perfectly normal!

  • mkent

    ”Imagine if SpaceX wasn’t around, and the USA (ULA and others) had but 13 launches to show for the year.”

    Aaahhh, no. If SpaceX weren’t around the NASA and Space Force payloads they launch would instead be launched by ULA.

    ”Funny how strange it is to see everyone else just throw their multimillions in hardware away…”

    Not strange at all. It’s perfectly normal. No one else launches enough for reusability to pay for itself.

  • john hare

    mkent
    July 30, 2024 at 1:50 pm
    ”Imagine if SpaceX wasn’t around, and the USA (ULA and others) had but 13 launches to show for the year.”

    Aaahhh, no. If SpaceX weren’t around the NASA and Space Force payloads they launch would instead be launched by ULA.

    ”Funny how strange it is to see everyone else just throw their multimillions in hardware away…”

    “”””Not strange at all. It’s perfectly normal. No one else launches enough for reusability to pay for itself.””””

    Chicken-egg. They don’t launch enough because they are throwing away expensive gear and passing the cost on to the customer.

  • Jeff Wright

    Exactly.

    Rocket reuse is still brand new from a historical point.

    We who desire rapid space progress think it old hat.

    It will take time.

    Ariane 6s are not obsolete…just another launcher of the usual kind. Patience….

  • Mark

    I won’t watch another ULA launch until they reverse their decision to prohibit photographers from selling photo’s featuring their launches. Fortunately, I won’t be missing much. ;-)

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