Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 25, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, MARCH 24 ■ If you haven’t spotted Mercury yet this season, look for it lower right of Jupiter as twilight fades as shown below. Jupiter is magnitude –2.1. Mercury this evening is magnitude –0.1, meaning one sixth as bright. And that’s not counting the extra […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 20, 2024 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher On March 14, the world’s largest man-made flying platform, the 5,000-ton SpaceX Starship, made its partially successful third flight, with 6 more planned for 2024 alone, and with SpaceX leader Elon Musk on March 18 vowing that Starship will reach Mars by 2030. The caveat […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 13, 2024 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher Chinese officials and astronauts played their usual role touting advances in China space program during the March 6 to 10 National People’s Consultative Congress (NPC), as it serves to highlight the military-technical leadership of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Female Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping, whose […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 9, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SATURDAY, MARCH 9 ■ Sirius is the overwhelmingly brightest star of Canis Major. In a very dark sky the Big Dog’s realistic stick figure is fairly plain to see — the dog is in profile, prancing to the right on his hind legs, with Sirius as […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 28, 2024 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher The second United States attempt to send an unmanned Moon Lander to the Moon apparently will end in mission termination on Feb. 27, while China on Feb. 23 revealed new information and projected confidence in its ability to send astronauts to the Moon before 2030. […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 18, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 18 ■ Canopus, the second-brightest star after Sirius, happens to lie almost due south of Sirius: by 36°. That’s far enough south that it never appears above your horizon unless you’re below latitude 37° N (southern Virginia, southern Missouri, central California). And near there, you’ll […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 14, 2024 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher The not-so-secret “secret” of the global “private” space sector is that successful private space companies usually achieve success due to the demand and subsidies provided by governments. President Ronald Reagan promoted the ambition that commercial space operators would someday vastly eclipse government space operations and […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 12-17, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12 ■ Orion stands his highest in the south by about 8 p.m. Under Orion’s feet, and to the right of Sirius, hides Lepus the Hare. Like Canis Major, this is a constellation with a connect-the-dots that really looks like what it’s supposed to be. […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, Feb. 7, 2024 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher As China and Russia have increased their open conventional military cooperation, and have explored covert nuclear military cooperation, it is likely that both have been pursuing military cooperation in space. On Feb. 1 the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a press release titled, “Press […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, February 4, 2024 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 4 Today is the center of winter; we cross the midpoint between the December solstice and the March equinox at 10:16 a.m. EST (15:16 UT). That minute is the very bottom of the wheel of the year, astronomically speaking. In ancient Gaelic cultures this day […]
