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Readers!

 

My July fund-raising campaign to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary since I began Behind the Black is now over. I want to thank all those who so generously donated or subscribed, especially those who have become regular supporters. I can't do this without your help. I also find it increasingly hard to express how much your support means to me. God bless you all!

 

The donations during this year's campaign were sadly less than previous years, but for this I blame myself. I am tired of begging for money, and so I put up the campaign announcement at the start of the month but had no desire to update it weekly to encourage more donations, as I have done in past years. This lack of begging likely contributed to the drop in donations.

 

No matter. I am here, and here I intend to stay. If you like what I do and have not yet donated or subscribed, please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four 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.
 

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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.


Voyager Space buys satellite electric propulsion company Exoterra

Voyager Space announced yesterday that it has acquired Exoterra, a company that specializes in building electric propulsion engines for satellites.

ExoTerra’s proprietary technology delivers precise maneuvering, extended lifetimes and high efficiency delta-V – essential for spacecraft across national defense architecture layers that must be able to reposition, avoid threats and sustain mission advantage.

…ExoTerra’s Halo thruster technology is proven aboard DARPA Blackjack ACES spacecraft and the company recently supplied York Space Systems with 21 propulsion modules for the Space Development Agency Transport Layer. The company also has contracts with commercial companies and organizations such as NASA.

Voyager Space began as a space station startup, acting as the lead company in the consortium building the Starlab station. Since then it has diversified its operations to make money in other space-related areas. This acquisition appears aimed at increasing Voyager’s ability to win contracts in connection with the military’s Golden Dome project.

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

  • Jeff Wright

    How many of these buy-outs are just ways to sit on others innovations as opposed to helping develop said innovations?

  • Dick Eagleson

    Ah yes, the “200 mpg carburetor” being suppressed by Detroit – a story already decades old when I was a boy. That ancient lefty fable might actually be a legitimate concern if the acquiring company was some arrogant and intellectually barren legacy outfit with an inferior extant product it wanted to continue foisting on the market – like, say, any of the major contractors who work with Marshall or the iconic, but fictional, North American Veeblefetzer Corporation from MAD Magazine during its glory days.

    But Voyager Space hasn’t been around long enough to have any superannuated product lines to protect. Nor has Rocket Lab, which is another company that has grown notably from its start-up roots via multiple acquisitions of smaller firms with complementary technologies but also with capital and production problems.

    Far from suppression of acquired technologies, the NewSpace acquirers of NewerSpace companies want to sort out production bothers, slap their own names on the acquired tech and send its sales force out to flog the new stuff to existing and potential new customers. Rocket Lab, Voyager Space and Redwire have all demonstrated the benefits of such a business strategy.

  • Aussie Dave

    The “200mpg carburettor “! That and X-ray Specs. Good times, simpler times. I may also have some MAD magazines in the attic somewhere

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