Guest: Robert Zimmerman returned to this Space Show program to honor Apollo 8 on its 40th anniversary and to discuss the state of the space industry as we wind down 2008 and look forward to 2009. Bob suggested that perhaps Apollo 8 and the reading from Genesis on Christmas Eve forty years ago as Borman, Anders,and Lovell orbited the Moon was perhaps the most important space mission of its time. You will want to hear Bob tell the story of Apollo 8, how Genesis was selected to be ready by the astronauts, and the role of NASA PR at the time in the selection of the reading passage. In the second segment, we talked about calculating the accident rate of rockets based on a listener question. This led us to a discussion of Space X and the Falcon 9, the Hubble repair mission and the use of one or two pads for the rescue vehicle so the Aries 1-X rocket could be fired on schedule, plus we discussed human spaceflight in general. This discussion continued to the final segment as we talked about the Obama Space Transition Team, their interest in human spaceflight and what this might mean for a future NASA. A listener asked about Direct 2 as an option to the troubled Aries 1, as well as questions about NASA with regards to the Aries program. Other topics for this show included insurance costs, the replacement of the NASA administrator and much more. To find out more about Robert Zimmerman, check out his website at http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze3cxxp/zimbib.htm . You can email him through me at drspace@thespaceshow.com or you can search for his email address on his website and then contact him directly.