Orbital Astrology

by
Luciano Drusetta, Italy
Translated And Partially Rewritten into
English by the Author
Reviewed & Proofing by: Pamela Jablonski
U.S.A.
Originally published on Ricerca 90, issue
55/2003

Born in 1962 and I have been an

astrological counsellor to individuals,
couples and businesses for almost thirty
years. After experimenting different schools
of Astrology, ten years ago I resolved to join
Ciro Discepolo's astrological method and
school, named Active Astrology -- based on
the active relocation of the Solar Returns
(Mr. Discepolo calls them: Aimed Solar
Returns or Aimed Birthdays) and the
exorcism of the symbols, as originally
conceived by Swiss psychiatrist Carl
Gustav Jung. I am the founder and current
moderator of the newsgroup of astrological
discussion and information in Italian
language it.discussioni.astrologia.
Website
http://digilander.libero.it/drusetta/
Blog
http://lucianodrusetta.blogspot.com/

ome of the readers may know my

dissertation on the Extraterrestrial
Astrology, originally published on
the Italian magazine Ricerca 90, issues 44
to 47, and also available on Saptarishis
Astrology Website. In brief, the
Extraterrestrial Astrology is an attempt of
exporting our daily astrology activity into
outer space in order to be able to assess, at
an astrological level, all the events that
may happen anywhere other than on our
planet Earth: such as births (natal charts),
birthdays (Solar Returns) but also Lunar
Returns,
transits
and
any
other
astrologically detectable event that
astrologers may deal with. This means
literally anywhere: in orbit around the
Earth, on the Moon, on Mars, or even any
other place in the Universe.
One of the most frequent criticisms to my
Extraterrestrial Astrology is that it may
represent a nice intellectual exercise of
theoretical astrology, while is of virtually
no practical use. Indeed, thinking of a
human birth in space does not appear
realistic. But if such event I have to
admit it is not just around the corner,
several people have already spent a
birthday in the space. Hence my
Extraterrestrial Astrology may have
already found its practical application in
the study of Solar Returns. Dont you

believe me? Let us consider a few facts taken from the German website www.spacefacts.de.
This site, also available in English, gives you the full list of the astronauts, cosmonauts,
trikonauts and space tourists from the very beginning of the space adventure until our days.
Strictly speaking, with the word astronauts we usually refer to the U.S. astronauts, or to
those people of other nationalities who have flown with US space agency NASA. The word
cosmonauts refers to Soviet or Russian astronauts or to astronauts of any other nationality
who have flown with the Soviet space agency I mean, the agency of formerly Soviet
Union, presently Russian space agency. Trikonauts are the Chinese astronauts, while all the
others are usually referred to as space travellers or space tourists. Here I will use the term
astronaut in the broadest sense of the term, referring to all the people who have ever flown
in the space.
In early 2003, shortly before the tragedy of the space shuttle Columbia, destroyed over Texas
during re-entry, the site Spacefacts listed more than 400 people who had flown in space until
then. The number of effective astronauts is actually much higher, but most of them are still
in waiting list for the first flight, while others used to work as an astronaut but have never
gone to space. To make a long story short, since Yuri Gagarin more than 400 people have
gone to the space as an astronaut or as a tourist. Of each of them, the website Spacefacts
gives: the place and date of their birth (alas, without the time!), the dates of their missions in
space, and some biographical notes. Based on this information, we can get to know how
many of them, and which ones, have ever celebrated a birthday in space.
Some of you may argue that without the time of birth it is impossible to determine the exact
time of a Solar Return. This is true, but it is also true that the SR always takes place within
the three days around the civil birthday: it can only be on the very day of the birthday, or
the day before, or the day after. Following this simple rule, and based on the information
given by the website Spacefacts, anyone can find out how many people have actually had a
SR in space.
The result surprised even me: as for early 2003 44 people had certainly had a Solar Return in
space. It is not a negligible number: it is more than 10% of the total number of astronauts. A
further 11 astronauts may have had, but not certainly had a SR in space. This obviously
depends on their time of birth and on the detailed schedule of their space missions. I mean
that some of those eleven astronauts were just taking off or they were just re-entering from
orbit on the very day of their civil birthday. Therefore these 11 cases require further
investigation.
In any case, this is 44 + 11 = 55 interesting astrological cases; some of
them were dramatic, and
I think that it would be worth to study them in depth. Among these 11
cases perhaps the most outstanding and sad story
is that of Viktor Ivanovich Patsayev [Fig. 1, left],
who died in 1971 during the re-entry of the Soyuz
11 immediately after his SR in space1. Patsayev
and two fellow cosmonauts had been sent to
spend some time in the orbiting station Salyut,
which would become part of the famous orbiting
station MIR. Probably due to a loss of pressurization in the re-entry
module, the three cosmonauts perished a dramatic event, although

not so striking as the accidents to the two ill-fated shuttles Challenger and Columbia.
Incidentally, none of the members of the crew of the two tragic missions Challenger and
Columbia had spent their SR in space.
A birthday in orbit is not necessarily a fatal experience: this is confirmed by the less
dramatic, yet still significant case of Charles "Pete" Conrad [Fig. 2, lower right on the
previous page], a veteran of space flights since the days of the first Gemini missions2.
Together with two fellow astronauts, Conrad formed the first crew of Skylab which had
been orbiting for a time, empty, waiting for the first men to arrive and occupy it. There were
no technical problems whatsoever, either during the mission or during the re-entry, but the
astrologically interesting fact was that Pete Conrad, after spending his SR in space, left
NASA at the height of his career and moved to Colorado to take over a prestigious
government charge.
The study of these and other specific cases of Orbital Astrology involves certain
verifications that are quite difficult to solve. So for the time being what I can do is simply
introducing to you some technical issues related to the calculation of a SR in space and
proposing you one example to study, even though unluckily it can only be a hypothetical
case.
THE QUESTION OF THE HORIZON

s you may recall, one of the basic principles of the Extraterrestrial and not only the
Extraterrestrial Astrology is that the House system of our charts must be cast
considering the place where the subject stands in that moment. This is an obvious
concept, but it must be repeated because it is taken for granted in the case of a natal chart,
while not all the astrologers accept that the chart of a SR be cast considering the place where
the subject is in that moment. In the context we are dealing with now this is a fundamental
concept, so that if one does not stick to this rule, all the reasoning that follows becomes
nonsense.
Now, following the afore mentioned principle some people suggested that when the subject
is in orbit around the Earth, the centre of the astrological chart (normally occupied by our
planet Earth) should be occupied by the spacecraft or by the orbiting base, and that the
House system should be calculated based on a horizon that runs through the orbiting
vehicle. I would immediately discharge this hypothesis, because it would involve a task very
difficult to solve: we should build up and point out, on such a small and manoeuvrable
heavenly body as the space shuttle or the orbiting base, a logical system of actual
geographical coordinates in miniature. We should establish an axis of rotation of the vehicle,
two poles, a horizon, and to make a long story short, if you wish you can try it but I prefer
to deal with other possibilities.
In fact, when drawing the Houses in our charts, we do not take in consideration the
subjective horizon3. When you were born and we cast your natal chart, we do not care
whether you were delivered upside down with your head down and your belly in the air; and
when you have your Solar Return, we do not care if at that time you are doing yoga or if you
are scuba-diving or somersaulting under water: in any case we draw the line ASC-DSC
horizontally with the MC up and the IC down. For what we consider to be above, i.e. the
daytime hemisphere, the top of the chart, is not what is physically above the subjects head.
The top of an astrological chart is that portion of the sky that is above the horizon line:
namely, the line that in our charts goes from the Ascendant to the Descendant. If the subject

lies upside down the parameters of the question do not change. If you have Mars at the MC,
you keep having Mars there even if you bury your head in the sand like an ostrich. By doing
so, your Mars does not end up in the Imum Coeli! Similarly, no matter if the space shuttle
actually flies in orbit upside down and its crew has the Earth above their heads. And it does
not matter if a future orbiting base would be rotating regularly around its axis to create
artificial gravity: from the astrological and astronomical point of view, the horizon that we
use for the House system will be the same we are going to define it in the following
sections.
I am assuming that in the case of people or objects in orbit around the Earth, the House
system always refers to the geographical coordinates of the place over flown at that time.
Starting from that place you will have to calculate the horizon which is the base to all the
House systems. I will consider two possibilities now: the first is that we take in
consideration the height factor; the second is that the height or altitude can be safely
ignored.
HOW HORIZON CHANGES WITH THE ELEVATION

he most common definition of Ascendant is: the sign that we can see rising at the
Eastern horizon at a given time. Do you all agree? If you agree with this definition,
you implicitly understand that the calculations of the Houses use the visible horizon
or the geometric horizon. There is a slight difference between the two. The visible horizon is
a little bit wider than the geometrical one: due to atmospheric refraction phenomena we can
actually see up to a little farther distance than what the simple geometric calculations would
allow us to see. However in this article Ill consider these two types of horizon as perfectly
identical.
So let us define the visible horizon [Fig. 3, below] as the circle that serves as the basis of a
cone whose apex is the observer. The radius R of this circle indicates the maximum distance
that we can actually see (not considering the already mentioned refractive phenomena) and
it grows with the height at which the observer stands, according to the following formula
(an approximate but effective one):

R = 3,570 multiplied for the square root of H

where H is the height in meters.
According to this formula, an average man
(say, six feet tall) under normal conditions,
at sea level can see at a distance of 3,570
meters multiplied by the square root of 180

cm, which is equal to 1.34 cm. So he sees up to a distance of 3,570 x 1.34 = 4,783.80 m. At a
height of 4 meters we can see little more than 7 km. At a height of 100 meters [Fig. 4,
previous page, right] we can see within a radius of 35.5 km. In the mountains, at an altitude
of a thousand meters, we can see until a distance of about 113 km. From a plane flying at a
cruise altitude of 10,000 feet we can see things in a radius of about 357 km. Manned orbital
vehicles are positioned normally on low orbits at a distance varying from 100 to 400 km from
the surface. At a distance of 200 km from the surface, the visible horizon covers up to 1,600
km.
But as you know, the matter is complicated
by the fact that the Earth is not flat. As we
move away from its surface, we realize that
we are on a sphere, and as we fly farther off
in to the outer space we can see it become
smaller and smaller. On the ground we have
the impression that we are on a plate that
covers exactly half of the sky: 180 of 360 of
the celestial vault. Starting from a certain
height, we realize that we are actually over a
convex plane covering less than 180. The
following formula helps us quantify this
progressive deformation of the visible
horizon: [Fig. 5, left]
D = R / sin x
where D is the distance of the watcher from
the centre of the Earth; R is the average
radius of the Earth (let us assume that it is
equal to 6,400 km); and x is half the visual
angle, also equal to half the apparent size of
the Earth as seen from a given distance.
Now, this formula takes the distances from
the surface of the Earth, not from its centre.
But this is not a problem, because we can
simply subtract R from D and we get the
data we are seeking for.4
Now let
us
consider
some
practical
examples of how a horoscopic chart could get deformed
if the Ascendant-Descendant line were to follow the
deformation of the visual horizon at various heights. Let
us begin from a chart normally subdivided in Houses at
any location at ground [Fig. 6, right]: in this situation

the horizon covers exactly half of the sky = 180 of the

chart.
At a height of 500 km the horizon appears to be
strongly curved, as to cover only 150. So in our
hypothetical natal chart subdivided in Houses at such
elevation [Fig. 7, left] the line ASC-DSC will also be
curved and it would split the chart into unequal
halves: the lower one (night) of 150 and the higher
one (daytime) of 210. As the logical consequence of
the curvature of the line Ascendant-Descendant, the
Descendant point (i.e. the cusp of the Seventh House)
is no longer diametrically opposite the Ascendant
point (i.e. the cusp of the First House). In the specific
case of the chart drawn in Fig. 7, the Ascendant at
approximately 20 Aries corresponds to the Descendant at approximately 20 Virgo.
Please note that the deformation does not affect the line MC-IC, which I neglected to draw
in these charts. I did so for the sake of clarity, but also to draw the readers attention on the
line ASC-DSC.
From a distance of 1,000 kilometres from its surface, the Earth appears as a sphere of 120 in
diameter, and it would cover only four signs of the
Zodiac, while the upper half of our chart would extend of
240 long degrees [Fig. 8, right]. The example proposed
here shows an Ascendant falling somewhere in between
Aries and Taurus, while the Descendant falls somewhere
in between Virgo and Leo.
This is a critical distance, because beyond the distance of
1,000 km the line ASC-DSC, which in effect represents
our planet Earth in our astrological charts, no longer
touches the centre of the chart. In other words, it is
beginning from this distance that we can start talking
about real, effective Extraterrestrial Astrology. Unless
you represent our bent horizon by drawing a parabola
instead of a circular arc: only in this way the ASC-DSC line, despite being strongly
deformed, could continue to tap the centre of the chart.

Let us boldly go further and farther. From a distance of

2,600 km [Fig. 9, upper left], the Earth occupies 90 degrees
of the sky and it covers only three zodiacal signs. At a
distance equal to the mean radius of Earth (6,400 km) the
Earth covers 60 [Fig. 10, below], while at a distance of
18,300 kilometres [Fig. 11,
lower left] it appears as a
sphere of 30. Also the
distance
of
18,300
kilometres from Earths
surface
is
a
critical
distance, because only
starting from this distance
we can see the Earth
(although for very short
periods)
somehow
included in one zodiac
sign, thus becoming (at least in my opinion) a celestial
body just like any other in the sky i.e. yet another
element of our charts, an element which can be read just
like any other, a planet to which the future astrological
tradition would assign an interpretation of its own.
As seen from the Moon, at about 384,000 kilometres from
here, the Earth is reduced to an apparent magnitude of only 2 degrees [Fig. 12, below]. Let me
stress that, as seen from the Earth, the Moon and the Sun both have an apparent size of half
a degree. This would offer the opportunity to argue about the
real accuracy and reliability of the ephemerides telling us the
position of the Luminaries with a precision reaching the
minutes or the seconds of arc but this would lead us far
from the scope of this research of Orbital Astrology. Ill
come back to this subject another day instead.
The linear length of the Earth as seen from the Moon is
only four times greater than the linear length of the Moon
as seen from the Earth5. Do not let this mislead you.
Remember that we are talking of a circle in the celestial
vault, so the Earth is actually much greater, seen from the
lunar surface: a quick mental calculation led me to reckon that it should appear at least 12 to
16 times larger than the Moon as we can see it from the Earth! In other words, if we were on
the Moon we would probably see a huge Earth actually. At least it would be enormous for us
earthlings, accustomed as we are at our Moon measuring half a degree and even so,
sometimes, our Moon does appear very big indeed, especially if its close to the horizon or if
it appears to us against a reference point such as a building, a tower, or a tree.

IGNORING THE HEIGHT FACTOR

fter having wowed you by the special effects of science fiction, I invite you to
reflect: are you really sure that the line ASC-DSC becomes deformed with the
height? To answer this question we must first revise the definition that we had
given of the Ascendant as the sign that we actually can see rising on the Eastern horizon
at a given moment. Is it really so? Do we astrologers, in our House system, really consider
the visible horizon? Here is the answer...
At the height at which manned space missions usually orbit (as we said, it is usually
between 100 and 400 km from Earth surface), the deformation of the visible horizon
therefore the possible deformation of the 12 Houses is reduced to a bare minimum, at least
if compared to the striking examples that I have showed you so far, relevant to much farther
distances. Since all the work of the astrologer is balanced between accuracy and precision
(another intriguing topic that someday I would like to boldly elaborate in my articles), it is
my opinion that in this case we are allowed to approximate, thus ignoring any possible
deformation of the Houses.
There is another reason that makes me lean towards the total irrelevancy of the height factor
while drawing the Houses for a chart in orbit. Ill tell you right now. First let me remind you
that besides the visible horizon and the geometric horizon (that so far Ive considered to be
perfectly overlapping here just for convenience), there are two other types of horizon. The
first one is the astronomical horizon, defined as the plane parallel to the geometrical horizon
and tangent to the watchers place of station. It is my belief
that when we astrologers cast and draw our Houses in the
chart, we actually consider yet another kind of horizon: the
rational one, defined as the plane parallel to both the
geometric and the astronomical horizon, and passing
through the Earths centre [Fig. 13, left shows these three
horizons in two dimensions, while Fig. 14 below tries to
represent them in 3D]. It is also my opinion that luckily for
us, the rational horizon which is the fundamental building
block for the construction of our line ASC-DSC does not
deform with the height. On the other hand, given the huge
distances that we face when we relate our Earth to the
celestial vault, we can safely consider that our planet Earth is a simple non-dimensional
point in the very centre of the vault. As a consequence,
the rational horizon can be safely considered as
perfectly coincident with the astronomical horizon.
This is why I believe that a SR in orbit should be
subdivided into the 12 Houses based on the coordinates
of the place over-flown by the spacecraft at that time,
leaving out the factor altitude. This place is called sub
satellite point. For in space, when everything is related
to the celestial vault and to the Zodiac, the distances
vanish and I am sure that 100 km more or less do not
make any difference between an object lying on the ground and an object flying on the
vertical of the same place. This is my humble, personal opinion. Obviously the last word
will be the word of the first astrologers who are able to study a real case of SR in orbit, and

to compare two charts drawn according to the two different criteria: one considering, and the
other one ignoring the height factor.
SATELLITE BUSTING

et us try and calculate, as a mere didactical exercise, the SR of Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi, fancying that in a fit of megalomania he decided to visit the
International Space Station just before his birthday of 2003. Are you wondering why
bother to fantasize about Mr. Berlusconi in orbit when we have at least 44 real cases of Solar
Returns in space to study? Ill tell you right now, in connection with the two most striking
cases of SR in space. While in Patsayevs case we do not know his time of birth, the time of
birth of Pete Conrad is known but this is no good because we are not able to determine
exactly the Skylab position at the time of Conrads Solar Return. With Silvio Berlusconi,
the task is much easier to solve. First, we do know his time of birth and therefore we can
safely say that his SR of 2003 occurred at 10:21 GMT of the 29th of September. What is left is
to get to know where the space base was flying in that exact moment and at what altitude (if
we also want to consider the possible deformation of the
line ASC-DSC).
No problem these and other pieces of information are
provided by excellent software packages, called satellite
busters6, especially developed for those amateurs who
love to go hunting artificial satellites to watch them
with a telescope or binoculars. Most of this software can
be downloaded free from the Internet in a demo or
shareware version. They are light executables that can
be installed in any computer. They read the orbital data
from text files with .TLE extension and return on your
computer screen the exact location of the satellite you
are looking for at the time that you want7. They also
provide a number of interesting data, including the sub satellite point, which is precisely the
element that we need to cast our charts, explicitly the geographical coordinates (latitude and
longitude) of the place over which the satellite flies at
that time. They also give the height of the object from
the ground, for those who want to play with the
deformation of the Houses.
However, the satellite buster software programs have
significant limitations. The files containing the orbital
data must be updated constantly; if we use non-recent
data we may get some nice surprises. For example, in
early 2003 I installed one of these software programs to
know where the International Space Station (ISS)
would be in September, during Mr. Berlusconis
birthday and the answer was... that it would have
already fallen on Earth! This is because, obviously, the
artificial satellites do not stay in orbit forever. In order
to keep them in space without letting them fall down on
to our heads, their pilots or controllers give them a

10

helping hand from time to time. Later on that year, fed with more recent data, the same
software told me that if Mr. Berlusconi had been on board the ISS, he would have spent his
Solar Return at approximately 360 km above the point of longitude 134 E and latitude 52 N.
This would have been his SR then. I leave the analysis of its reading to you [Fig. 15 upper
left on the previous page shows his natal chart, Fig. 16 lower right on the previous page is his
chart of SR at ground, Fig. 17 below left shows the same chart at the height of 360 km].
CONCLUSIONS
Now back to reality, namely to those 44 sure cases plus
those 11 probable cases of SR in space, which I have
mentioned at the beginning of this article. As I told you,
we do know the time of birth of Pete Conrad therefore
we could calculate the exact time of his SR in orbit.
Unluckily there is another hindrance yet. It is not
possible to trace the exact position of the Skylab at that
time, because the data files containing the orbital
positions for those satellite buster" pieces of software
only refer to objects launched after 1980 and still
currently in orbit. No data available for the space
shuttles, Skylab, Soyuz, Gemini, Apollo missions
Even the available data should be taken with care. First
of all, TLE files usually contain official data which does
not mean real data. Often the data contained in the
available files refer to the schedules of the intended
flight path at the time of take-off. There is no guarantee that in the end a space shuttle or the
space station really sticks to the planned routes. As for the Solar Returns on Earth some
approximation is a must; especially if you wish to relocate a SR, you can always spend a few
hours in the selected place for the relocation, thus counterbalancing possible uncertainty
about the time of birth and the exact time of the Solar Return itself. But the objects in orbit
are constantly moving, quickly flying always from West to East.
Let us open a small parenthesis of general orbital culture. Why do the satellites orbit always
eastwards? Because at the moment of take-off, in order to achieve the required escape
velocity, the rockets take advantage of the centrifugal force produced by the natural
movement of rotation of the Earth. In my naivet, I imagined that when a rocket rises it
goes up in a straight line, while the Earth rotates beneath. If it were so, it would move from
East to West. Things do not really go like this: Earth works as a slingshot and when the
rocket lifts from the ramp and liberates from the gravitational pull, it is a bit like a stone
when it is detached from the sling, i.e. throwing itself in the same direction that the sling
gave to it initially.
For this reason there is also a precise relationship between the latitude of the launching site
and the orbital tilt, which is also influenced by unavoidable political variables to be taken
into account. First, we define an equatorial orbit having a tilt or inclination or 0 (the
satellite constantly flies over the equator) and a polar orbit having a tilt or inclination of 90
(it flies over both poles, crossing the equator at a right angle). The Russian missions that
depart from Baikonur at just over 45 N, they should follow an orbit with a tilt of 45 degrees,

11

but it is not so, because shortly after take-off they must consume a great deal of fuel to reach
the latitude of 51 N because they are not allowed to fly over China. Similarly, the space
shuttles departing from Cape Canaveral at 2830 N had to consume a lot of fuel to reach the
orbit of 51 and engage the MIR.
Back to the example of Silvio Berlusconis
hypothetical SR in space, we can cast his SR in space
only if we do not have any doubt about his time of
birth, therefore about the exact time of his SR,
because only one minute later than 10:22 GMT the
space station would have been quite far away from
the reckoned point. It would have been in fact over
the point of latitude 51 N and longitude 140 E. This
would have led to significant differences in the chart
of the SR [Fig. 18 left: chart at ground level, Fig. 19
below right: same chart at height]. Not to mention
that also the altitude of the space missions changes
constantly. As a consequence, dealing with Orbital
Astrology requires much greater precision (or said in
other words, it allows a much smaller tolerance) than
the earthly Astrology of everyday life earthly not
only because it is a geocentric astrology, but also
because it is cast, reckoned, drawn and read at ground level.
***
In this article I presented some of the issues related to the
study of Solar Returns in space. There is a relative
abundance of specific cases that may already be studied, but
it is counterbalanced by a chronic lack of data for the
historic mission and the insufficient reliability of the
official orbital data. With this new chapter of my
Extraterrestrial Astrology I hope I have shown that not
only the calculation of a SR in space is possible, but it is also
necessary to address these issues. In fact a good fifty people
have already had a SR in orbit and we can not ignore this
fact any longer. The number of people who will spend their
birthday in space is doomed to increase rapidly in the close future. Perhaps even the birth of
the first human being in space is not as distant as we may believe.
Two short technical notes:
1) The natal charts and the charts of SR are produced by Ciro Discepolos software package
of professional astrology, Astral. I slightly modified them with MS Paint to re-draw the
cusps of the Houses and to show how they shift if we consider the deformation of the
horizon in height.

12

2) When drawing the deformed charts I applied a rigorous calculation only to the line
ASC-DSC. The line MC-IC, in fact, refers to the meridian and does not change with height.
The other cusps of the charts in altitude have been reckoned in an approximate way, still
trying to reflect the criteria of subdivision of the quadrants of the trigonometric House
system of Placidus.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patsayev
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Conrad
3
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horizon
4
see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angular_diameter_distance
5
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraterrestrial_skies#The_Earth_from_the_Moon
6
or satellite tracking software, see http://www.satbuster.com/ or http://www.nlsa.com/
7
see http://www.pcigeomatics.com/cgi-bin/pcihlp/AVHRCOR|TLE+DATA+FILE
2