> how quickly things change but also stay the same
As it'd be foolish to rely on things like gps that may no longer be around when you want/need to launch, as far as I know ICBMs (and presumably also SLBMs?) still shoot the stars near apogee, to fix their reckoning.
The astro-nav's gimbaled telescope-like system on top of the guidance group works by making an ever-widening circular search pattern to find and fix three of any of 64 mapped stars in its memory, and compares their locations to a Julian calendar and a highly accurate chronometer.
Agree that non-electronic, non-networked navigation has a place but marine conditions often obscure the skies in this area of the world.. also the on-demand precision of modern times gets to be "required" for various interactions with other humans and their territory.
As it'd be foolish to rely on things like gps that may no longer be around when you want/need to launch, as far as I know ICBMs (and presumably also SLBMs?) still shoot the stars near apogee, to fix their reckoning.