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, any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
"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
From the Huntsville Times: NASA could be in a budget limbo for months as a result of Tuesday’s election.
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 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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What will the global warming scientists do? The new chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee calls for “strong oversight . . . in key areas including climate change, scientific integrity”.
Watch the Deep Impact flyby of Hartley 2 this instant (11:06 AM eastern)! The images are incredible. Update: The fly-by is over, but the live stream is still available (as of 11:30 am Eastern), showing some of the images taken. The comet itself is a peanut-shaped object about two miles long, with a jet of water coming out one end.
Now available in hardback and paperback as well as ebook!
From the press release: In this ground-breaking new history of early America, historian Robert Zimmerman not only exposes the lie behind The New York Times 1619 Project that falsely claims slavery is central to the history of the United States, he also provides profound lessons about the nature of human societies, lessons important for Americans today as well as for all future settlers on Mars and elsewhere in space.
“Zimmerman’s ground-breaking history provides every future generation the basic framework for establishing new societies on other worlds. We would be wise to heed what he says.” —Robert Zubrin, founder of the Mars Society.
All editions are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and all book vendors, with the ebook priced at $5.99 before discount. All editions can also be purchased direct from the ebook publisher, ebookit, in which case you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
Autographed printed copies are also available at discount directly from the author (hardback $29.95; paperback $14.95; Shipping cost for either: $6.00). Just send an email to zimmerman @ nasw dot org.
The first hints of the new space war over NASA: Florida Today calls for the new Congress to continue the NASA budget increases as authorized by the old Congress.
Leaving Earth: Space Stations, Rival Superpowers, and the Quest for Interplanetary Travel, can be purchased as an ebook everywhere for only $3.99 (before discount) at amazon, Barnes & Noble, all ebook vendors, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big oppressive tech companies and I get a bigger cut much sooner.
"Leaving Earth is one of the best and certainly the most comprehensive summary of our drive into space that I have ever read. It will be invaluable to future scholars because it will tell them how the next chapter of human history opened." -- Arthur C. Clarke
The last launch of the space shuttle Discovery has been scrubbed today, this time because of weather. They will try again on Friday.
An evening pause: Since I am out in California, giving a lecture to the Orange County section of the AIAA, I figure this song might be appropriate.
“Global climate disruption” takes another hit! Democrats who had voted for the Cap & Trade bill in 2009 were slaughtered in yesterday’s elections.
Yesterday’s elections will clearly force changes again to NASA’s future. Below are a few links from some other space experts expressing their thoughts on the matter. I will follow with my own essay sometime next week, after the election results have some time to shake out.
From SpacePolicyOnline, an overview of the results in relation to space policy.
From Rand Simberg: Great election news for space.
From Space Politics: Brooks wins, Giffords with a narrow lead.
See also this Space.com article: Election Brings New Leadership to NASA Oversight Committees.
Overall, the defeat of Congressmen like Oberstar and Grayson, both of whom loved to regulate, can only be good for the future of private space.
NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center today published its monthly update of the Sun’s developing sunspot cycle, showing the slow rise in sunspots in comparison with the consensis prediction made by the solar science community in May 2009.
Unlike October graph, which showed a clear jump in sunspot activity, this November update shows that the rise in sunspot numbers has once again slowed down. As I’ve noted repeatedly, these numbers suggest that we are heading for the weakest solar maximum in two hundred years, far below predictions. And when that last happened, around 1810, it was called the Dalton minimum and the Earth experienced one of its coldest periods in many many decades.
An evening pause: As election day is just about over, I think this song will help explain to our elected officials the kind of government the United States has, and how the results from today are merely a single moment in a long struggle.
An electrical problem on the space shuttle Discovery could delay tomorrow’s launch. Update: NASA has decided to definitely delay the launch until Thursday, at the earliest.
Democracy marches on! The American astronauts on ISS used a secure email system to vote early from space.
According to the manager of the world’s largest mutual fund, the U.S. dollar could lose 20% of its value in next few years, due to actions of the Federal Reserve.
NASA has completed a significant upgrade of its Deep Space communication system. These unheralded antennas and the engineers who maintain them make it possible for scientists to communicate with the far flung planetary probes in orbit around Venus, Mars, and Saturn, as well as the spacecraft visiting comets or traveling beyond the edge of the solar system.
The superEarth orbiting the red dwarf star Gliese 581 in its habitable zone does exist, according to a preprint paper published today on the Los Alamos astro-ph website.
A deluge of new regulations by the EPA threatens to reduce the American capacity to produce electricity by over seven percent.
Saving NASA from the Obama science fair. Key quote:
In place of a plan crafted by his predecessor which might have one day carried astronauts to Mars, Mr. Obama has proposed a science fair that literally goes nowhere.
Hasn’t someone already said this, at great length, more than a few times?
Link fixed! Sorry about that.
Feel the hate: Virginia Democrat supporters rip up Repulican signs on private property while screaming curses at conservative demonstrators.
Another Iceland volcano eruption pending? Iceland’s largest glacier, which sits atop the island’s largest volcano, Grimsvotn, began releasing large amounts of melt water on Thursday, October 25, indicating the volcano underneath might be heating up.
Anti-American propaganda from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Key quote:
In my thirty years as a professor in upper education, I have never witnessed nor participated in a more extremist, agenda-driven, revisionist conference, nearly devoid of rhetorical balance and historical context for the arguments presented.
And the Democrats wonder why they are losing this election? Fifty-eight percent of the population favors repeal of Obamacare, with a whopping 70 percent of independents wanting repeal.
The religion of “peace” strikes again! Islamic terrorists seized a Christian church in Baghdad during services. In the violence that followed, 58 people were killed and 78 wounded.
Opportunity’s long journey across the desert plains of Mars to reach Endeavour Crater is now more than half completed. Below is the most recent mosiac of its view heading east towards the crater, with the crater’s rim visible on the distant horizon, still five miles away.
A poll warden, since dismissed, denied the right to vote on Friday to a policeman in full uniform because he refused to surrender his gun.
Gallup poll numbers suggest tomorrow’s Republican victory could be the largest in generations, and could exceed all predictions. Key quote:
It should be noted, however, that this year’s 15-point gap in favor of the Republican candidates among likely voters is unprecedented in Gallup polling and could result in the largest Republican margin in House voting in several generations. This means that seat projections have moved into uncharted territory, in which past relationships between the national two-party vote and the number of seats won may not be maintained. [emphasis mine]
