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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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Will Tom Cruise ever actually shoot a movie in space?

Capitalism in space: According an interview last week from Donna Langley, chairman of Universal Film Entertainment Group, the company is arranging for Tom Cruise to film scenes of a movie on ISS, where Cruise will also be the first non-professional to do a spacewalk.

“That’s the plan. We have a great project in development with Tom that does contemplate him doing just that,” she said, “taking a rocket up to the space station and shooting and hopefully being the first civilian to do a spacewalk outside of the space station.”

She said the film request came from Cruise directly and that he is in close collaboration with director Doug Liman, who previously worked with Cruise in 2014’s “Edge of Tomorrow” and is also known for “The Bourne Identity” franchise, “Mr. and Mrs. Smith” and “Jumper.”

This claim might be true, but producers associated with Cruise have been making such claims now for three years, none of which have come even close to happening. I am sure the project is being discussed, and even pushed hard, but based on what has actually happened, this announcement could simply be a way to generate buzz for Cruise’s next film, whether or not he flies.

Nonetheless, I fully believe that Cruise is the source of this idea, and wants to do it, given his habit of doing his own stunts in his movies.

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

  • David Ross

    I further believe that Cruise has the work ethic to train for this stunt, such that he’s not nearly the insurance risk other actors might be.

  • pzatchok

    I just can not imagine much of a movie taking place in basically one room with three actors at best.

    If he could make it a stage play to test it out first I might start believing him.

    Or if he just wants some extra footage from the space station he would not be ground breaking. That has already been done.

    If they want one minute shots of zero-g then they could just put the set on a vomit comet and spend a week shooting film.

    More than likely Cruz wants to film a few shots in space just so he can right off the whole experience as a business expense in film making. Virtually a free ride,

  • Mike Borgelt

    If he’s doing a spacewalk to make a movie he’s as much of professional as anyone else doing so for work reasons.

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