Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 16, 2023 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher Russian dictator Vladimir Putin needs to produce some good news for the Russian people, at least to offer some contrast with his disastrous war against Ukraine that has isolated Russia from most of the civilized world. Putin’s war has resulted in painful economic embargoes with […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 15, 2023 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. MONDAY, AUGUST 14 A winter preview: Step out before the first light of dawn this week, and the sky displays the same starry panorama it does after dusk around Christmas. Orion is striding up in the southeast, with Aldebaran and then the Pleiades high above it. […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 10, 2023 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, AUGUST 6 ■ The Big Dipper hangs diagonally in the northwest after dark. From its midpoint, look to the right to find Polaris (not very bright) glimmering due north as always. MONDAY, AUGUST 7 ■ A few Perseids trickle in starting in late July, then they […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 8, 2023 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher The United States plans its manned return to the Moon, in 2025 or 2026, to be followed by China’s astronauts in 2029. One key to their respective abilities to build lunar facilities as the basis for dominating choice strategic locations on the Moon will be […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, August 2, 2023 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher To its credit, the Biden Administration is using space diplomacy on Earth to upset China’s plans for global and space hegemony. On July 27, as Chinese Politburo Member Li Hongzhong was celebrating China’s proliferation of nuclear weapons to North Korea as a star guest in […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 27, 2023 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SATURDAY, JULY 29 ■ The Moon hangs just off the spout of the Sagittarius Teapot this evening. MONDAY, JULY 31 ■ The two brightest stars of summer are Vega, overhead shortly after nightfall, and Arcturus, shining in the west. TUESDAY, AUGUST 1 ■ Full Moon (exact […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 25, 2023 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher According to the U.S. Department of Defense, China maintains over 500 surveillance, intelligence, early warning, navigation and communication satellites around the Earth — the second largest satellite fleet after the United States. But several Chinese satellite programs are underway that will boost these numbers as […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 17, 2023 Excerpts from weekly Sky&Telescope report. SUNDAY, JULY 16 ■ The tail of Scorpius is low due south after dark, to the lower right of the Sagittarius Teapot. Look for the two stars especially close together in Scorpius’s tail. These are Lambda and fainter Upsilon Scorpii, known as the Cat’s Eyes. […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 19, 2023 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher July 18, 2023 Since 2009 China has been Africa’s largest trading partner. All but one of Africa’s 54 states are in the China-led Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) formed in 2000 and over 50 African countries joined the 2019 and 2022 China-led China-Africa Peace and […]
Special to CosmicTribune.com, July 12, 2023 Geostrategy-Direct By Richard Fisher Both the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have ambitions to become major players in space. Both are members of the 27-member Artemis Accords, setting out agreed behavior on the Moon, and both have recently sent astronauts on missions aboard the […]