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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
 
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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.


Vast signs deal with SpaceX for two ISS tourist missions

Depending on whether it gets NASA contractual approval, the space station startup Vast has now signed a deal with SpaceX for flying two tourist missions to ISS.

These two missions expand Vast’s launch manifest with SpaceX, which includes the company’s Falcon 9 rocket delivering Haven-1 to low-Earth orbit and a subsequent Dragon mission to fly crew to the commercial space station. Haven-1 will also be supported by Starlink laser-based high-speed internet.

Axiom, which has flown three tourist missions to ISS and has a fourth planned, is also bidding for the next two tourist slots NASA has made available for ISS in the coming years. It is not clear who will get those slots. Axiom has the advantage it has done it before, but the rumors that it lost money on those flights and now has a cash shortage work against it. Vast hasn’t yet flown, but it is moving fast to fly and occupy Haven-1 next year. NASA might want to give it at least one of those slots to balance the scales.

Hat tip to BtB’s stringer Jay.

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

  • mkent

    I’m pretty sure Axiom will get at least one of the slots. For flight five they’ve partnered with the UK Space Agency for an all-British spaceflight. British astronaut Tim Peake is coming out of retirement to command the mission. It’s the sort of mission — partnering with foreign space agencies — that NASA and their overseers in Washington like.

    Axiom simply isn’t charging enough for these types of missions. They’re reportedly paying SpaceX $150 million for the flight and millions more to NASA in hosting fees but are only charging $55 million per ticket. That’s not enough margin on three tickets per flight to make a profit.

    ESA is making far more money on these flights than Axiom is. They inserted themselves between Axiom and the European governments making these deals, in some cases even after the deals were already made. For example Sweden reportedly paid ESA over $100 million to fly an astronaut on Axiom 4 after the deal with Axiom had already been announced. ESA then paid Axiom their $55 million fee and pocketed the rest. Sweden was unhappy with that but agreed to it in the name of “European unity.”

    I think Axiom set their ticket price as low as they could to attract individual buyers, but the institutional market price is obviously higher than that. Axiom should claw some of that money back from the middleman, IMO.

  • Mark Sizer

    If one removes the “million” from the prices, looking at it as loss-leader until they get their own destination seems more reasonable. Selling something for $55 when it costs you $150, now, but is expected to be “free” in a few years is not unreasonable. Presumably there will be internal line-items moving money from “launch price” to “accommodation costs”, but externally it’s all the same company.

    It’s the extra zeroes that are scary. Hopefully they can manage.

  • Edward

    Axiom has the advantage it has done it before, but the rumors that it lost money on those flights and now has a cash shortage work against it.

    If Vast or Axiom charge more this time than Axiom did the previous times, then we may have our answer as to whether Axiom lost money on those previous flights.

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