"NASA's Mariner Missions" - Fully funded. Thank you all so much, also: I want to reduce the ads

Hey, Patrons -- I will write up a normal 'report' in the existing style that will go into detail tomorrow, but I just want to let you know that we landed on a savings amount of ~$3,700 with the current month's pledges, and I contributed the rest out of my end to push us over the $4,000 requirement. I have everything I need, and Mariner is fully a GO. Footage is already ordered.

Further pledges beyond this point will go to fund the NEXT project, which will be due around December. I've been giving this some thought, and here's where my mind is at regarding projects:August '25: Mariner

December '25: Apollo 8 Remastered (For Artemis II)

April '26: Apollo Soyuz Test Project

August '26: The Red Planet (Mars landers and rovers)

December '26: Early Apollo (R&D era, 1 through 7)

April '27: Skylab

I was thinking of bridging this content with some short form stuff, but I am really weighing all that. I also have a big announcement regarding the REDUCTION of ads that you see in the videos coming up. I am no longer going to use music without commercial licensing willy-nilly. Of course there will always be "marquis' songs (like Jefferson Airplane's White Rabbit at the end of Gemini Part II), but I am transitioning to using licensable music. This means, at the end of the day -- YouTube will no longer be able to FORCE an ad roll every 3-5 minutes, which is totally obnoxious. My sincere apologies to anyone who has been putting up with that.