Late last year, residents and law enforcement spotted mystery aircraft, thought to be drones

[Jagerbomb52]

Mystery 'drones' could be SpaceX Starlink satellites

Late last year mystery aircraft, thought to be drones were spotted by residents flying over Colorado. There is a chance it was SpaceX's low-orbit Starlin...

dronedj.com

 

[HiloHawaiian]

Mystery 'drones' could be SpaceX Starlink satellites

Late last year mystery aircraft, thought to be drones were spotted by residents flying over Colorado. There is a chance it was SpaceX's low-orbit Starlin...

dronedj.com

Interesting... weird reflections from rockets, low orbiting satellites or high flying planes can spark localized rumors of mysterious flying stuff fairly often. Dawn & dusk. I covered 5AM rocket launches in New Mexico that were regularly reported as UFO’s from the weird reflections when it got high enough reflect sunlight while the sky was still pretty dark...

 

[Goober]

While some of the reports could be mistaken for Starlink sats, from my years of satellite tracking experience, I would have to disagree with the article. Orbital mechanics would NOT allow multiple days of similar sightings in the same area or county. Most sat obs more closely resemble high flying aircraft, both in speed and point-of-light appearance. The reports I've read of the Colorado sightings resemble more of a lower altitude object(s).

I will admit to uninformed witness reports being exaggerated and mistake prone, but large number of reports from a single area could provide useful for triangulation and possible explanation. Similar to meteor/fireball reporting. Most think that the meteor is going to hit close to them, but in reality the tiny rock is more like 50 miles up. Multiple reports of fireball sightings can quickly determine orbital direction, speed and height. (ain't math great?)

Who knows? There was some recent "UFO" sightings in Michigan that freaked out a bunch of folks, but most likely were lanterns from an Asian festival. UFOs or Lanterns << language warning >>

 

[HiloHawaiian]

While some of the reports could be mistaken for Starlink sats, from my years of satellite tracking experience, I would have to disagree with the article. Orbital mechanics would NOT allow multiple days of similar sightings in the same area or county. Most sat obs more closely resemble high flying aircraft, both in speed and point-of-light appearance. The reports I've read of the Colorado sightings resemble more of a lower altitude object(s).

I will admit to uninformed witness reports being exaggerated and mistake prone, but large number of reports from a single area could provide useful for triangulation and possible explanation. Similar to meteor/fireball reporting. Most think that the meteor is going to hit close to them, but in reality the tiny rock is more like 50 miles up. Multiple reports of fireball sightings can quickly determine orbital direction, speed and height. (ain't math great?)

Who knows? There was some recent "UFO" sightings in Michigan that freaked out a bunch of folks, but most likely were lanterns from an Asian festival. UFOs or Lanterns << language warning >>

I agree with you. There’s too many variables that don’t add up for folks to see similar things in the same general area. Low-earth Satellite orbits vary greatly, that’s why they need SO MANY to cover the same area 8 geo-sync sats could, orbiting 22k miles up. While it’s easy to see a lot of flying/orbiting reflections in a big sky, high altitude area like Co, if it was 100% from satellites, Starlink controllers could easily verify it by releasing their tracking data. They know where each one has been since released from the Falcon.

Our THAAD test launches from White Sands were always between 4-5AM to avoid air traffic. They’d launch a target missile 100 miles north, then a THAAD to intercept it (hopefully). The UFO reports always differed because the atmospherics differed each launch day at 100,000+ ft. Sometimes the reports were local, sometimes from Texas or Arizona, even Los Angeles!

 

[Goober]

While it’s easy to see a lot of flying/orbiting reflections in a big sky, high altitude area like Co, if it was 100% from satellites, Starlink controllers could easily verify it by releasing their tracking data.

The Starlink string-of-pearls are most noticeable (and gained the most publicity) just after launching each set. They deploy 60 sats at once and then maneuver to higher orbits, slowly spacing out from each other. Lower is brighter and faster, under the correct conditions. The higher the orbit, the more spread out and dimmer they get.

Actually, the Starlink sats are easily tracked, along with most of the orbiting objects in the sky.
Heavens Above is an easy to use site. Just choose your observing location or search for a city near you. After it computes for your location, pick one of the 10 day predictions or the daily predictions for brighter satellites.

I just checked for my house and there is a nice pass of the latest Starlink string tonight. Now, if the clouds will clear...

I captured a few the other morning passing by the bright star Vega. Crappy animation of 41 one second images.
Starlink Animation

Keep lookin UP

 

[HiloHawaiian]

Yea, the DoD, NSA and NRO hate that site and others like them, LOL...There are stealth satellites that are much harder to track. Just like stealth airplanes, the satellites are designed to avoid detection. I’ve heard whispers of elaborate acrobatics & even ignition of reserve fuel in the 3rd stage to mask the deployment and disappearance of these rogue birds. With China doing more destructive experiments up there, (one very recently), it‘s obvious what their end-game is... disrupt GPS & secure Comms. Anything in low earth orbit is vulnerable...

This hasn’t gone unnoticed, now all critical national security-type constellations are being nuclear hardened, jam-proofed (?), and/or made stealthy. I just read that the major Military space contractors are hiring like crazy. With China now the #1 focus, the next conflict will surely involve space assets...

N2YO.com - real time satellite tracking

Select any satellite orbiting the Earth and check where it is located now

www.n2yo.com

SATVIEW - Tracking satellites and Spacejunk in Real time

Know where are located all the satellites at this moment. Track the International Space Station, Hubble Telescope and all space junk. See with your own eyes the satellites crossing the sky

www.satview.org

 

[Goober]

Very good video of latest Starlink launch from Switzerland.

Starlink latest satellites

This is similar to my first naked eye viewing of the train, several launches ago. In just a few days they will maneuver higher and further apart, becoming much dimmer.

 

[HiloHawaiian]

You have to wonder about the feasibility of the concept. I worked for the company that built 77 Iridium sats for Motorola — the 1st global satphone business using a handset, not a backpack. The business model made no sense, and Iridium LLC quickly went bankrupt. Boeing bought it for 5 cents/$. Removing the cost of designing/building/orbiting—the system made money! It’s still used today. That could happen again with Starlink...
Elon Musk isn’t very good at making money, (Tesla!) he’s very good at getting others to fund his ideas. Some great, some not.
This is the 4th or 5th try at a global broadband from a LEO constellation.

Problems? 1) Cost of designing/building/orbiting the assets is enormous, a profit, if there every is one, is decades off. Elon said in 2015, he could build & orbit Starlink for $10B which is laughable. If it ever comes close to full ops, it’ll likely be $50-100B. How long before a profit? Never. 2) Customer base, like Iridium, is mostly rural and small. It’s much cheaper to run fiber, even under the ocean, than orbit a 100’s+ sats (Elon says 12,000, which is ridiculous). 3) Satellites malfunction/ wear out, you must continuously orbit spares. The system needs a 24/7 staffed command center, stuff happens. 4) Slow speeds, high bills. You can get sat-based internet right now, it’s slow and pricey. There’s limited bandwidth, like when Verizon throttles your 4G HD streaming to SD, b/c too many folks are watching the same game in the same restaurant. 5) Space junk & astronomical observation issues. A tiny bolt traveling at 12,000mph can, and has, seriously damaged other satellites. With that many sats, some will fail becoming hazards. Both land-based and orbiting telescopes have serious issues with the tiniest light pollution. Elon says his sats have a non-reflective coating, but if we can see them, they can see them.

 

[Goober]

I worked for the company that built 77 Iridium sats for Motorola

And I used to photograph Iridium flares...

Good points, all. The main thing Elon has going for him is launching the Starlink on USED rockets! Last two reused the payload fairings, also. Ten years ago everyone said that was crazy.

Man, if I ever get to AZ I would love to buy you a beer or two and listen to some of your stories...

 

[HiloHawaiian]

And I used to photograph Iridium flares...

Good points, all. The main thing Elon has going for him is launching the Starlink on USED rockets! Last two reused the payload fairings, also. Ten years ago everyone said that was crazy.

Man, if I ever get to AZ I would love to buy you a beer or two and listen to some of your stories...

We all have stories to tell!
Good points, but used rockets and payload fairings ain’t free or 5 cents/dollar rockets and payload fairings!
I don’t think there’s a single business analyst that’s studied Starlink’s BP that hasn’t shot up 77 Iridium warning flares, LOL.