Satellites?

[skfullgun]

We are in deep East Texas and the family is up for Spring Break. Sitting around the fire, my oldest son (35 yo) said, "look, a satellite". We all looked up and started watching it cross the sky. When it had traveled 3/4 of the way over us, my DIL said, "look, another one!". Then, equidistance apart, two more followed.
So, one farther in front, followed by three equally spaced, all traveling the same speed and the same, exact orbit! A total of six adults saw this and they were NOT aircraft. No blinking lights and much too high and moving too fast to be anything but satellites.
Are there really that many satellites in the same orbit that we could see four within one minute? Or did we see something else?

 

[Vaquero]

They're putting up more.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink

 

[FireInTheWire]

We are in deep East Texas and the family is up for Spring Break. Sitting around the fire, my oldest son (35 yo) said, "look, a satellite". We all looked up and started watching it cross the sky. When it had traveled 3/4 of the way over us, my DIL said, "look, another one!". Then, equidistance apart, two more followed.
So, one farther in front, followed by three equally spaced, all traveling the same speed and the same, exact orbit! A total of six adults saw this and they were NOT aircraft. No blinking lights and much too high and moving too fast to be anything but satellites.
Are there really that many satellites in the same orbit that we could see four within one minute? Or did we see something else?

Oh yes sir! There are low orbit & and high orbit satellites.

I've also witnessed AF aircraft not following "blinking" light procedure. I've seen B-2's doing some really odd stuff.

@Vaquero We need our authority on this matter.

 

[FireInTheWire]

They're putting up more.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlink

I'm too late to the party

 

[toddnjoyce]

You saw a satellite train. But, SPACECOM tracks about 20K space objects, of which about 5500 are satellites.

https://www.defense.gov/Explore/News/Article/Article/603125/officials-expand-space-tracking-website/

Pretty cool public website at space-track.org (requires registration)

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Skynet....

 

[jordanmills]

Yep, it's starlink. You probably saw group five. Wait for another group to launch and catch it in the next couple of days. They're much brighter a within a few days of deploying, and all in a tight group so you can see sixty in a line in the sky at once.

With all five or six launches, the weather and orbit have never cooperated to let me see them well.

 

[WT_Foxtrot]

I remember the first time I saw one on a canoe trip on the Brazos River back in the late '80s. Of course we were in the middle of nowhere so the sky was totally visible and not light-polluted on a clear night. Camping on a sandbar at night, I noticed one non-blinking light moving really fast (at least compared to aircraft) across the sky from right to left and mentioned it to my buddies. None of us back then really knew what to make of it and even speculated it could be a UFO. Wasn't 'til years later that I realized that it was actually a satellite.

 

[Moonpie]

I for one welcome our new satellite overlords.

 

[vmax]

We all gonna gets the internets from space

 

[DyeF9]

When we do a Starlink launch we put up 60 of them at a time. During the first week, they're visible during their orbit raising maneuvers. Once they get to their desired orbit, it's much harder to see them.

 

[Dad_Roman]

Anybody have a quicklink to sky viewing info of the next mission?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[majormadmax]

You can track and see the ISS as well!

 

[FireInTheWire]

This is cool also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare

 

[DyeF9]

This is cool also

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_flare

Unfortunately the iridium satellites have all been replaced with seven launches by SpaceX to launch the Iridium NeXT constellation. Iridium flares are a thing of the past.

 

[DyeF9]

Anybody have a quicklink to sky viewing info of the next mission?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

https://www.satflare.com/track.asp?q=starlink#TOP

 

[Dad_Roman]

https://www.satflare.com/track.asp?q=starlink#TOP

Thank you sir.

 

[skfullgun]

Thanks for all the replies. I had no idea.
They really are watching us!

 

[kbaxter60]

We all gonna gets the internets from space

Some of us do now. It's not all it's cracked up to be.

 

[Byrd666]

Hmm. Big Brother gettin' too big