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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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The mighty J58 engine, the SR-71’s secret powerhouse

An evening pause: For the geeks out there, this video is a very nice and detailed explanation of the engineering that makes this jet engine so powerful.

Hat tip Tom Biggar.

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

7 comments

  • Joe

    I wonder if the Russians ever had a powerhouse recon aircraft like the sr71, after all they copied the space shuttle!

  • pzatchok

    I am sort of honored to have been one of the last few to have actually watched one fly and been able to service it on the ground,

    Personally my favorite plane of all time.

  • pzatchok

    They couldn’t even make missiles capable of its speed and altitude.

    Sadly some of its last missions were little more than acting as a fast carrier pidgin.

  • Cotour

    Watching the video explanation of how complex the engines were in order accomplish their job I am not surprised when I watched a documentary about its operation one of the pilots who flew it I believe said it took three years of training to qualify to fly it? Am I remembering that correctly?

    He said that there was little to no time to enjoy the scenery at 80,000 feet and at speed because if you did not pay complete attention to the plane and all of its complexities it could begin to set a series of operational problems.

  • E Wolf

    As a non-engineer, I was fascinated by this video. I was also reminded of this description of the Turbo Encabulator. Both videos made an equal amount of sense to me:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ac7G7xOG2Ag

  • I posted this as an evening pause back in November 2014. Quite funny, and revealing in a way.

  • Phill O

    A refueling speed of 0.9 Mach seems it would be not for your average pilot. I wonder what plane they use to refuel it with/from.

    Phill

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