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It is now July, time once again to celebrate the start of this webpage in 2010 with my annual July fund-raising campaign.

 

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ULA today stated that they have enough Russian engines in stock to complete the 36 launch U.S. military bulk buy.

2:46 pm

ULA today stated that they have enough Russian engines in stock to complete the 36 launch U.S. military bulk buy.

Whether they will actually complete that bulk buy remains unknown.

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

6 comments

6 comments

  • Eric
    May 14, 2014 at 5:46 pm

    Hi Bob,
    I looked for some link to email you directly, not finding one I decided to comment on this article, since it’s remotely related to my subject. I am a regular listener to John Batchelor, and thoroughly enjoy your commentary.

    I wanted to alert you to a space related contest – put on by hackaday.com and is called the Hackaday Prize. Entrants are invited to post projects of a future looking nature, and some metric of popularity and judging is to award one lucky entrant with a Trip To Space. You would know better than me who would be providing this prize, but apparently the winner won’t be riding a Russian engine. (there’s the remotely related part).

    I entered the contest, and they also asked that we spread the word around. They had some suggestions, but since I get my Space related news form you via John Batchelor (sometimes C2C) and Hackaday encourages innovation and an open, collaborative approach to development, I thought you might like to discuss the contest.

    I’m afraid my project is not a rocket engine that seems to be in demand all of a sudden, but it’s “out there”.

    Thanks again for the great commentary !

    Eric

  • Robert Zimmerman
    May 14, 2014 at 7:15 pm

    Hi Eric.

    Is there a link to this contest?

  • geoffc
    May 15, 2014 at 6:46 am

    Do we know the breakdown of Atlas vs Delta boosters in that bulk buy? Assume half/half. I recall that several of the buys were for Delta4-Heavy’s which need 3 cores each. So assume 3 Heavys, that is 9 of the 36 cores. Assume the remaining 27 go half/half Delta/Atlas. They are saying they have 13 or 14 engines in stockpile? That seems pretty large to hold, just from a cost of storage perspective.

  • Kelly Starks
    May 15, 2014 at 11:18 am

    From the Wikipedia list it looks like the Atlas-V has been launching 4-5 a year. So yeah 3.5 years would come out to that many.

    But why would they be expensive to hold?

  • Eric
    May 16, 2014 at 4:10 pm

    I should have posted a direct link, sorry.

    http://hackaday.io/prize

  • Robert Zimmerman
    May 16, 2014 at 4:39 pm

    Interesting indeed. I have posted this on BtB. Thanks for the tip, and good luck!

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