To read this post please scroll down.

 

Thank you!

 

The July fund-raising campaign is now over. Though the donations and subscriptions were poor for most of the month, the response in the last helped make up the difference. Thank you all for coming through in the end. It was beyond gratifying to find out that there are supporters to my work out there.

 

I will keep this thank you notice up for the next week, just so that everyone who donated or subscribed can see it. And if you haven’t donated this year as yet, please consider supporting me in some small manner. My website has no advertising and no sponsors (other than my readers), and it is free for all to read and comment without charge or registration. Your support is the only thing that keeps me going. You can either give a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. 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

Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652

 

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.


Texas A&M submits bid to run JPL for NASA

9:38 am

In May 2026 NASA had announced that for the first time it was going to consider bids from other universities to take over the operation of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). Located in California, JPL has been run by the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) from its founding in the 1930s, and after it ceded ownership to NASA it has always been awarded the management contract in sole source bidding..

Texas A&M has now responded to NASA’s request and submitted its own bid.

Since 2019, JPL has partnered with Texas A&M, letting A&M students work on research at JPL and JPL researchers work with A&M. Now, A&M wants to take the partnership a step further.

JPL is responsible for rovers on Mars, exploration of every planet in the solar system, and many of the satellites that help scientists understand the planet. Texas A&M has been growing its ties to space, including building the A&M Space Institute at Johnson Space Center.

The system also has experience running large institutions. It already co-manages Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Pantex Plant near Amarillo, which assembles and disassembles nuclear weapons.

Immediately after NASA’s May announcement Caltech officials declared it would submit its own bid. In addition, the University of Southern California (USC) indicated its interest in bidding in August.

It appears this bidding process has only begun, with a final decision likely months away. What is clear is that there will be qualified universities competing against Caltech. Moreover, the management at JPL in recent years has been very spotty, with budget overruns, contract delays, and a foolish focus on DEI that has poisoned its work force. There is no guarantee Caltech will get the contract, and in fact it would not be surprising if it doesn’t.

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

8 comments

8 comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Readers: the rules for commenting!

No registration is required. I welcome all opinions, even those that strongly criticize my commentary.

However, name-calling and obscenities will not be tolerated. First time offenders who are new to the site will be warned. Second time offenders or first time offenders who have been here awhile will be suspended for a week. After that, I will ban you. Period.

Note also that first time commenters as well as any comment with more than one link will be placed in moderation for my approval. Be patient, I will get to it.

Formatting buttons insert safe HTML. Links and comments with more than one link will still be moderated.