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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.

 

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ULA’s CEO provides update on Vulcan and the company’s launch plans

Link here. ULA’s CEO Tory Bruno outlined the overall state of the company’s launch plans, including its goal of ramping up the launch rate by the end of this year to what Bruno had hoped to achieve at this start of 2025.

ULA anticipates a robust schedule, aiming for about two launches per month across its Atlas and Vulcan fleets in 2025 and 2026, “unless something interesting happens.”Bruno expressed confidence in achieving nine launches this year, bolstered by the completion of a new Vertical Integration Facility (VIF) and Mobile Launch Platform (MLP), enabling parallel rocket assembly.

In December 2024 Bruno had predicted the company would complete 20 launches in 2025. Right now it has only completed two launches (one each for Vulcan and Atlas-5). Getting up to 9 launches by the end of this year will require it to go from one launch every four months to two launches per month, and do so immediately. In its entire history the company has never come close to achieving that launch pace. The best it ever did was 16 launches in 2009.

That pace will also rely on Blue Origin delivering enough BE-4 engines for Vulcan’s first stage. According to Bruno, Blue Origin is now getting it done, and “might be an engine or two ahead.”

Much more at the link.

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

2 comments

  • Edward

    From the NSF article:

    In a likely reference to Eastern Range availability, Bruno wants this analysis to cover not only ecological impacts but also the broader launch environment.

    “There are certain operations you can’t do on a pad when another vehicle is fuelled, due to the ‘energetics associated with that.’”

    Focusing on ULA’s association with national defense missions, Bruno emphasized the importance of ensuring that “national launch capacity” expands rather than contracts, stating, “The analysis has to ensure that the capacity of our nation is greater, and not smaller.”

    Doesn’t SpaceX load their propellants later in the countdown than ULA? Doesn’t that mean that each ULA launch ties up certain operations longer than SpaceX does for each launch? So, doesn’t that mean that Tory Bruno is complaining that SpaceX launches more rockets than he does? And isn’t that Bruno’s fault for not having fully reusable first stages that can launch often and for not having an inexpensive operation that attracts enough customers to keep his rocket fleet busy?

    Looking ahead, Bruno hinted at further innovations: “Recovering the aft of the booster is not the end of the journey for us.” He suggested that expanded reuse could boost Vulcan’s launch cadence.

    Shouldn’t ULA have realized this a decade ago?

  • Richard M

    I was just astounded that Bruno actually promised 20 launches. It wasn’t believable then, and one has to wonder who the audience was for that.

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