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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.
 

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XCOR faces bankruptcy and liquidation

Capitalism in space: Unless XCOR can find a new investor in a matter of weeks, the company will face bankruptcy and will be liquidated.

Freedom and competition might bring wealth and innovation, but they also require risk and failure. XCOR sadly appears to be an illustration of this.

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

4 comments

  • wayne

    I don’t follow XCOR that closely– what is dragging them under? People, Process, and/or Product?
    How many employee’s do they have?

    Just speaking in general-
    Going bust is always tragic, (individually or otherwise) but is a nescessary aspect of business as a whole.
    The upside to bankruptcy; the pain is imposed quickly and contained to the Creditor’s, and all those resources are re-priced in the Market and become available to be re-deployed to their next highest value use.

  • Wayne: Do a search on BtB for “XCOR”. I cover the company’s fall step-by-step, beginning in October 2014.

  • Mark

    Enter “xcor site:behindtheblack.com” into your favorite search engine. That should work.

    Too much ambition, too little product, it would seem. Or perhaps eyes too big for their belly. https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/3087

  • wayne

    thanks.

    Referencing “emerging new-space,” in general, I’ve often wondered if there are any parallel’s to be drawn from the early emergence of the auto-industry. The initial rise was controlled by a small number of people and stifled/squandered, then there’s an explosion of innovation and production followed by periods of consolidation & concentration. Haven’t formulated all this in my head, just thinking out loud.)
    It will be interesting to see all this play out in the grand-scheme. (The Big Old Guys have been scrambling and merging as well.)

    Any other space-related companies that are in financial-peril?

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