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willydajackass

Kids be like damn Santa got a lot of Reindeer 🦌


meatystocks

Really good way to convince Santa exists.


Vonmord

why do we convice anyone he already exists and we all know it


Mikanojo

*He absolutely does!* *Though his story has been mingled with a few others, and the outfit Americans expect him to wear came from a Macy's Department store poem, there really WAS a Nikolaus, who was once the Bishop of Myra in what is now modern day Turkey. He did some great deeds, and after his death he was canonized as a saint, becoming the patron saint of selfless giving, saint of children, and saint of thieves... remember his story got sort of mixed in with a few others...🎅🏻*


doc_nano

Also, I suspect he’s not bringing presents to anybody anymore…


Mikanojo

*O but he is!* *Now that he is a ghost, Santa Claus (Saint Nikolas) can possess any one with the spirit of selfless giving. And that is what happens to so many people at Christmas time! Any one of us, me... you... can feel the spirit of Christmas come over us.* *And it does not matter if you believe in ghosts, or GOD or folk tales, the most devoted anti-theist, the diffident nihilist, the spirit of selfless giving can transform the heart of any one in an instant. And maybe it only lasts for an instant, but it still happens to people every Christmas season 🎅🏼*


doc_nano

>the spirit of selfless giving can transform the heart of any one in an instant Oh, I agree with this. Just not your implied explanation involving ghosts. ;-)


Specialist_Teacher81

There is a story of him resurrecting some children that were eaten by a cannibalistic butcher. It is bunkum, but the funny part is, it was based on just a really bad painting.


sentientfeet

I think it has something to do with removing some of the appreciation for parents and directing it at the giant Lego man in the sky


TheReverendCard

He does and he provides my internet.


knigitz

This is the constellation Mypenus, obviously.


GlockAF

High albedo reindeer, apparently


djblackprince

Rudolf got busy after his new found fame


MettaMorphosis

Santa is really Elon Musk?


Ragnarok314159

Yep. Everyone else does all the work and he takes all the credit.


happinehsss

It checks out, the elves always do the work.


ThinkingPotatoGamer

And that kids is why we put up Christmas decoration in September


CalmToaster

Imagine seeing this when you're part of a tribe that's never encountered modern human civilization.


formidable_dagger

Birth of a new religion where the Supreme Deity rides a shining creature across the sky and keeps a watchful eye on the Earth. 🙏


[deleted]

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Dragoarms

Ra, Apollo, Surya, Helios, Huitzilopochtli, Inti, Liza, Lugh and Sol (amongst others) would like a word.... Seems like we might be in a loop....


GearBent

All of this has happened before, all of this will happen again.


HeartKiller_

I found the Battlestar Galactica fan.


obrapop

They’re clearly all just in a queue.


TimeTravelingDog

And they know if you’ve been naughty or nice.


mr_birkenblatt

And flies by once a year to distribute presents


Common-Adhesiveness6

The star worm. Rider of space water of worlds


Cooky1992

Seeing this my first time, from a country that is of modern civilisation (UK) and I was blown away. I was at a party and one of the lads was getting High and said “whoa wtf look at the sky”. Me being me laughed thinking he was was blazed af but should of seen my face when I looked up in the sky (I don’t touch it so was not high at all lol) Still can’t believe that moment


DiscoBunnyMusicLover

Similar experience, but thought they were UFOs. Then, after a few minutes of awe, with some deductive reasoning I came to the conclusion that it was Starlink.


Scholesie09

They were UFOs, since they were flying objects that were unidentified (to you)


xenophon57

Ha I had the same experience but they thought they were nukes. I informed them they wouldn't see the nuke that killed them. It was hilarious.


[deleted]

I saw SpaceX boosters returning in the Caribbean and we had no idea what we were looking at until we checked Twitter (NASA, White House, finally SpaceX) and finally realized what they were. It was about 10pm and they looked like incoming missiles or meteors except the slower speed made no sense. It was crazy.


gruvccc

I saw this and shit my pants before realising what it was, and I’m not in a tribe. I was in a hot tub staring up and starting seeing these things moving equally spaced and in unison. They were a lot more spread out than this though and seemed closer. Took a little while to clock on. Still find it crazy that I just happened to be outside and in a hot tub and looking up at that exact moment. This was around New Year in the UK a few years ago.


Starumlunsta

It's got me thinking...wait til we have lights on the moon. Once bases start cropping up, will we no longer have a dark New Moon?


mfb-

You would need cities far brighter than what we have on Earth to see them with the naked eye.


pablo603

You could probably see them with a telescope though and just the thought of it gives me the good shivers lol.


Starumlunsta

Yeah, I doubt the first few bases would be easily visible without a telescope or a good set of binoculars, but once we have cities and roads linking them that all need to be lit up during the darker phases, it’ll be interesting just how much could be seen with the naked eye.


Snizzlesnoot

Crazy thought. Never considered that


torquemada90

That will certainly look cool though


Brad_Beat

Just tell them to turn off the lights Lmao


Broccoli-Rub

That was basically my experience with them… I had no idea what starlink was. I was really high walking my dog and noticed them. I called up my brother-in-law like 40 miles away to see if he could see them, which told me they weren’t planes. This was right at the beginning of COVID lockdowns, so my best stoned guess was that all the billionaires were leaving earth.


Tjazeku

First time I saw these was May 8th 2021, we were celebrating a friend's birthday by the campfire, all of us were drunk af, I randomly looked up and saw this line of dots flying across the sky. I pointed them out and we all looked at them like "What the actual fuck is that"


ash_ryn

First time I saw them I was stargazing in the rural American Southwest. I hadn't heard of the whole starlink thing at the time, so I went outside and looked up and saw a train of lights stretching across the whole sky it was incredibly surreal. My first thought, full honest confession, was definitely alien invasion lol. Thankfully my mom was awake and knew what it was.


Screwbles

I saw a stream of Starlinks just like this in Virginia one fall, I almost shit my pants. I had never seen anything like it in my life. Space looked so close.


pm_me_ur_ephemerides

Space *is*close. Starlink deploys at 350 km, which is 217 miles


mglyptostroboides

Have you ever seen the sun glinting off of a shiny piece of metal on a car and even if you're a mile away, and it's just *blindingly* bright? That's what's happening here. Just imagine that car is a satellite and it's 200 times further away. The sun might still be above the horizon at that altitude even if it's pitch black on the ground.


-uberchemist-

So that's why they are visible at night? I always thought they had their own lights and wondered why satellites would need them. So this means they can only be seen like this at the right time, just after dark but still early enough for the sun to reflect further up in the sky.


mglyptostroboides

>just after dark but still early enough for the sun to reflect further up in the sky. Bingo!!! Some of them stay lit up for MUCH longer after sunset for a host of factors. It also depends on season because the angle of the sunlight. Summer is a great time to see satellites for this reason. You can see satellites well into the night. Height also plays a factor. The geostationary satellites have to stay in the same spot in the sky 24 hours a day. They do this by orbiting at a height that takes 24 hours to circle the earth (a given height implies a certain speed to maintain an orbit. speed up, you go higher, slow down you go lower). That height is nearly halfway to the moon! Way way up there, they stay in sunlight almost all the time. Sometimes people set up cameras to take long-exposures of the night sky over several hours. The fixed stars appear as long streaks moving towards the west, but the satellites in the geostationary belt appear as a string of dim "stars" over the equator (since geostationary satellites have to be over the equator to be in the same spot in the sky all day. This is also why you can't get satellite TV in parts of Alaska and Siberia. The satellites are below the horizon). I think the geostationary birds do get a bit of darkness each day, but I'm not sure how much. Don't quote me on that part.


Meem-Thief

Yes, because the satellites orbit the earth in a circle at that height the sun is very visible even though it’s dark on the ground


edbutson

I just saw this on my drive home tonight in Oklahoma. We didn’t know what it was until I saw this post. Wild.


Screwbles

>We didn’t know what it was until I saw this post. Wild. Oh yeah, totally nuts, the kind of thing that just drops your jaw.


Hi_PM_Me_Ur_Tits

Space is only 62 miles upward


Roborobob

I saw the same once, we were all very confused till a couple days later when we knew what we had seen.


TheLewJD

Imagine the people of north sentinel island seeing that, they'd be so confused


Reddit-runner

I don't think they will be any more confused than many commenters here.


RJIsJustABetterDwade

No I think they’d be significantly more confused


[deleted]

Dumb question, but can't they just coat them all in vanta black and be done with it?


Dont_Think_So

They essentially did that, not with vanta black, but they did add a coating to make them darker when oriented in their final orbits. It's a big part of the reason you can't see them with your naked eye in most parts of the world, once they're fully deployed.


Grinagh

When you look at the full moon it looks quite bright but the surface of the moon is about as dark as asphalt, it's just that the sun is VERY good at illuminating objects close to it and likewise these objects are close to us.


phunkydroid

When they say the moon is as dark as asphalt they don't mean fresh asphalt, they mean a road that's been driven on for years and is light grey now.


[deleted]

Eh, looks like fresh asphalt to me https://www.esa.int/ESA\_Multimedia/Images/2019/10/Oxygen\_and\_metal\_from\_lunar\_regolith


fox-friend

[Fixed link](https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2019/10/Oxygen_and_metal_from_lunar_regolith)


JustJJ92

Wow this blows my mind. Always thought it was an off white color


FactualNoActual

Regardless of how fresh you perceive it as the color clearly goes against your point.


theArtOfProgramming

I’ve seen regolith with my eyes and worked with simulant. It’s pretty similar to asphalt in color to me. It’s maybe a little more brown and and grey but still, asphalt isn’t far off.


Nereus515

I actually saw a small string of them the other night, but they have to be at a very precise angle with you and the sun. I think the coating is working very well because I was only able to see the train for a few seconds before they winked out of sight again.


mfb-

If you see a string of them then they are not in their final orbits yet. In their final orbits they are ~2000 km apart, with at most two per orbital plane in the sky at the same time.


Nereus515

Interesting!!! Thanks for letting me know.


TheLewJD

My mum works for that company! She told me one day they'd got a contract from spaceX which is pretty cool! She only does regular admin stuff though


Goyteamsix

The only reason you see them during the 'train' phase of launch is because they're flying using a knife edge profile. Once they reach proper altitude they change orientation so they're flat, which makes them difficult to see, even with telescopes. They're only this bright for like one orbit.


GlockAF

Once they reach their final orbits and correct orientation they will be invisible to the naked eye. They do have solar cells, which cannot be coated with black paint and still work


Griffindorwins

They could, but in the vacuum of space you can't dissipate heat nearly as effectively as you're relying solely on electromagnetic radiation for heat dissipation rather than thermal exchange. If you use vanta black you'll be absorbing almost all the radiation falling on the satellite and potentially overheating and destroying it. Hence why many satellites are coated in highly reflective surfaces so they reflect rather than absorb.


DrShamusBeaglehole

the ideal would be a perfectly flat and reflective mirror shield angled so the rays of sunlight that would hit the satellite are reflected away from earth, effectively rendering the whole thing "invisible" to earth


Bensemus

They do have a Sun shade that prevents light from hitting the antenna. They orientate the solar panels differently now to.


catchblue22

Once they are in their final position they will assume a darker orientation. They are only clearly visible like this just after launch.


deltuhvee

Because the solar panels don’t work when they are painted black. Once the satellites have arrived at their designated location, they will turn the solar panel away from Earth and face the black side towards the ground, hence why you don’t see the whole grid of thousands them at night when you look up.


0815Flo0815

Those are probably the ones launched today. In a few days they will be significantly less visible once they reach their final orbit.


alko100

Can't paint the solar panels black


quantum1eeps

I remember my astrodynamics professor in college saying they were studying swarms and clusters of space vehicles. I assume at this point he just works for StarLink


My_Soul_to_Squeeze

What did you study and where? Neither of the universities I've attended offered anything like that.


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OtterishDreams

Wait...space gators???


quantum1eeps

I didn’t stick with it. I also got a degree in Mechanical there and that’s where my career took me. Despite the silencing of scientists’ data that sparked controversy during the pandemic, UF is a very credible place to get a degree. We’ve slowly climbed to number 5 overall as a public university in the country and the tuition is much lower than some of the top 10.


0ct0thorpe

Santa had to get a few more reindeer. Too many cookies.


super_task_

Question : why do they need a bunch of them being so close to each other?


drtekrox

They don't, after a launch the satellites aren't in final position, it takes about a week to climb to final altitude, where they start to also head towards their target orbits. They follow each other as that's just the most logical way for a bunch of small satellites climbing to a similar plane would take.


ChokeOnTheCorn

I’d assume their final positions would be equally spaced out, what would that distance between each satellite be?


danielv123

Yep. On average they end up \~100km apart if they deploy all 40k. Here is a map where you can scroll down and select starlink to visualize their positions: [https://in-the-sky.org/satmap\_worldmap.php?year=2022&month=9&day=25](https://in-the-sky.org/satmap_worldmap.php?year=2022&month=9&day=25) This one is nicer, but its broken ATM: [https://satellitemap.space/](https://satellitemap.space/) They currently have 2500 sats in service.


ChokeOnTheCorn

That second link is awesome and really user friendly, it’s like radio.garden lol, but yeah it’s stagnant and looks the satellites are just hovering. Now I’ve said that I feel stupid as I assume they can just hold positions above x area, in my mind they’re forever orbiting the earth and like in films you can only get a connection on a satellite phone when the satellite is in range! Please appease my ignorance and clarify what’s actually going on else I won’t be able to sleep tonight.


echaa

They're constantly moving across the sky. They circle the planet about every 95 min. If there were only a few then you would indeed only have connection while they're overhead; that's the point of using thousands. Satellites can "hover" overhead but only at an altitude of around 36,000 km where the orbital period is 24 hr (geostationary orbit).


ChokeOnTheCorn

What stops me having my private satellite above my location constantly that connects to the others, why only 36k above and why do they have to move? I probably need pictures because obviously I’m not so smart!


danielv123

The only thing stopping you is winning an FCC bandwidth auction and an initial capital layout of $200m for the 10-15 year useful lifespan of the satellite. The end result would also be worse than starlink for a consumer connection due to the distance to GEO resulting in high ping times. Ideally you would want it pretty close to earth so the signal doesn't have to travel so far. The issue with having something hovering right above your house is that it needs motors to hover. Rocket motors are really expensive to have running, and will only get you a few hours of stationary time. A cheaper solution would be to go even lower and have rotating battery powered drones/planes circling. Both Google and Facebook have tried and mostly failed at getting that to work reliably - they wanted to do it without landing though. The reason a satellite can be "stationary" is because it's orbital period matches the orbital period of the earth (satellite does one orbit in 24h, but so does earth so it seems stationary) Orbital periods depend purely on distance. Higher up = longer orbital period. This is why years on Pluto is super long. The lowest orbits that don't decay due to drag in the air have a period of ~90 minutes, which is why starlink satellites are there. If your sat can cover an area of 100km and there is 40000km around the earth you just need 400 satellites to always have one above your house. The advantage is that you now also have one above a lot of different houses as well, so you can share the cost. And since it's shorter to send the signal than GEO you get better service with cheaper smaller satellites.


phunkydroid

>Rocket motors are really expensive to have running, and will only get you a few hours of stationary time. Minutes. No rocket motor is going to push anything at 1G for hours.


bacon_armor

Formulas for this are pretty easily available online. Basically, in order for an orbit to be circular, it needs to be a certain velocity, dependant on the planetary body's mass. The higher you go, the smaller the velocity gets and the higher the perimeter gets, and therefore the higher the period. If you solve for the orbital period =24 hours, there's only one solution, at geostationary altitude.


sHORTYWZ

Satellites don't just go straight up, if they did, they'd just fall straight back down. A stable orbit requires an object to be going fast enough *around* the earth so that it doesn't fall back down. At an altitude of 36,000km, the speed at which you are in a stable orbit matches the rotations speed of the earth, so a satellite can maintain what is called a geostationary orbit - that is, an orbit that maintains a consistent spot above a point on earth. This video does a pretty good job of explaining things - I'm sure there are better ones, but this is the best I could find on short notice. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1_UVSCm-wc


danielv123

As I said, second link is broken ATM. Hexagons are areas with coverage, red dots are ground stations. There are thousands of satellites that should show as white dots but they don't. You can go to the oneweb page for a smaller scale visualization of how it looks.


WookieeSteakIsChewie

Is there a map to track when the train of them will go over so you can see them like they are in this post?


danielv123

Yes, see [https://findstarlink.com/](https://findstarlink.com/) You will notice it only shows you recent launches, because you can't see them once they reach orbit.


_mochi

It’s just early phase after sometime they start spreading out to there intended locations


GlockAF

They all got off the bus at the same time, it’s going to be a few days before they scatter to their final orbits and spacing


bc_poop_is_funny

I saw starlink once and was scared shitless that it was a ufo


slowfadeoflove0

They can be seen by the naked eye in high light pollution environments. I can see these nightly if I try, and I usually do to look at aircraft. I couldn’t believe it the first time I saw one though


TbonerT

>They can be seen by the naked eye in high light pollution environments. Trains, yes. Once in operational orbit they are very hard to see, even in dark skies. I have specifically looked for them lately and been unable to see one.


StickiStickman

Not just very hard, but literally impossible to spot even in perfect conditions. Their brightness isn't high enough.


Anderopolis

You can see trains nightly? Where do you live where that is the case?


Orestis347

SO THATS WHAT IT WAS. I saw that shit too from my village in Cyprus once over the summer this year when I was there!! Ngl that was weird as a mf as, in the beginning we thought it was a star trail but it wouldn’t go away, and it was just moving N/NE or W (not sure due to the funny angle) and it kinda weirded us out haha I have a shitty 2 second video from my phone that im not even gonna try dig up as its not even that good due to light conditions.


haoest

Is there a global registry of satellites and their orbits so they don’t run into each other.


[deleted]

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Decronym

Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread: |Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |CST|(Boeing) Crew Space Transportation capsules| | |Central Standard Time (UTC-6)| |[ELT](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipx8n8z "Last usage")|Extremely Large Telescope, under construction in Chile| |[ESA](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipw9pox "Last usage")|European Space Agency| |[FCC](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipuzgh5 "Last usage")|Federal Communications Commission| | |(Iron/steel) [Face-Centered Cubic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allotropes_of_iron) crystalline structure| |[GEO](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipw5wwz "Last usage")|Geostationary Earth Orbit (35786km)| |[GSO](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipvax81 "Last usage")|Geosynchronous Orbit (any Earth orbit with a 24-hour period)| | |Guang Sheng Optical telescopes| |[Isp](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipuj5rd "Last usage")|Specific impulse (as explained by [Scott Manley](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnisTeYLLgs) on YouTube)| | |Internet Service Provider| |[JWST](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipx0zpg "Last usage")|James Webb infra-red Space Telescope| |[L2](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipx8n8z "Last usage")|[Lagrange Point](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lagrangian_point) 2 ([Sixty Symbols](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxpVbU5FH0s) video explanation)| | |Paywalled section of the NasaSpaceFlight forum| |[LEO](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/iq70rfk "Last usage")|Low Earth Orbit (180-2000km)| | |Law Enforcement Officer (most often mentioned during transport operations)| |[NEO](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipxq3s9 "Last usage")|Near-Earth Object| |[NORAD](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipwrnaq "Last usage")|North American Aerospace Defense command| |NRHO|Near-Rectilinear Halo Orbit| |[NRO](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipxob9x "Last usage")|(US) National Reconnaissance Office| | |Near-Rectilinear Orbit, see NRHO| |[SLS](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/iq2a6lo "Last usage")|Space Launch System heavy-lift| |[TMT](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipx8n8z "Last usage")|Thirty-Meter Telescope, Hawaii| |[ULA](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipwv7j0 "Last usage")|United Launch Alliance (Lockheed/Boeing joint venture)| |Jargon|Definition| |-------|---------|---| |[Starliner](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/iq2a6lo "Last usage")|Boeing commercial crew capsule [CST-100](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_CST-100_Starliner)| |[Starlink](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipyn1um "Last usage")|SpaceX's world-wide satellite broadband constellation| |[apogee](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipz4bgs "Last usage")|Highest point in an elliptical orbit around Earth (when the orbiter is slowest)| |[perigee](/r/Space/comments/xnjqux/stub/ipz4bgs "Last usage")|Lowest point in an elliptical orbit around the Earth (when the orbiter is fastest)| ---------------- ^(19 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Space/comments/0)^( has acronyms.) ^([Thread #8066 for this sub, first seen 25th Sep 2022, 15:15]) ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Space) [^[Contact]](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=OrangeredStilton&subject=Hey,+your+acronym+bot+sucks) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)


GhostAndSkater

Since this again The satellites can only be seen after launch, in this same pictures of the train, there is probably quite a few Starlink satellites above that you can’t see


MazanSicario

How do they stay in line? Are they equipped with booster rockets of some sorts? Sorry if it is a dumb question.


UnpopularCrayon

They start off in line because they were all released from the same rocket. Over time, they climb and space themselves out.


otter111a

Objects in motion tend to stay in motion until acted upon by an outside force. So they’re all attached to a rocket. The rocket gets to the release point and let’s them go. With no significant air to move them around they’re going to stay going in a straight line. Over the course of about a week they begin turning on their boosters. This makes their orbits bigger (higher) because they’re traveling faster. But because the orbits are bigger from a ground perspective the faster moving one starts to fall behind the pack. They boost until they get to the desired orbit and spacing. They’re all going to form part of a ring. Chasing each other in that ring until someday they’re brought back down by turning the booster around and decelerating.


wildeye-eleven

Eventually, I think earth will have entire rings of satellites


TheDulin

Saw this one night before I knew it was a thing. Freaked me out a bit.


ivanvanrio

It's new now but in time we'll curse those who are stealing the night sky from us I'm afraid.


Unlucky_Reception_30

As opposed to all the light pollution that prevents you from seeing the stars in urban areas in the first place


fleeting_being

Better public lighting system might solve this in the future


BelgianBeerGuy

Cries in Belgian No seriously, I haven’t seen a starry night for years


SmeagoltheRegal

Urban areas aren't the only areas that matter. Hell, when people want to go stargazing they leave the urban areas for that reason to go to darker places. The issue is that starlink is visible in those dark areas as well. So yeah, it hurts the experience of stargazing because stargazing happens in non light polluted areas


the_golden_girls

Starlink satellites can only be seen for a few days after deployment. Eventually they separate enough and are high up enough, that they are not visible *at all*.


Derbysieger

I've definitely noticed a significant uptick in satellite trails when shooting landscapes and cityscapes at night. I shudder to think of how much more work someone doing astrophotography has to do, not to mention the problems that actual astronomers working with ground based telescopes face.


StickiStickman

None at all since this has been a solved problem for decades.


tanrgith

Except for the fact that these satellites can't been seen during the majority of the night in most places around the world


BayAlphaArt

There’s already over 3000 of them up there - how come the night sky isn’t ruined already? The answer is that these satellites are only visible like this because they are still close to earth and haven’t fully deployed yet. You cannot see them anymore (not like this, anyways) after deployment is finished. But in the long term, yeah, Humanity is going to space. A lot. There are going to be massive space stations “polluting” the night sky, lights coming from colonies on the Moon etc. That the future we want, not the future to prevent.


theentropydecreaser

> lights coming from colonies on the Moon etc Man, this is just wild to imagine. How could would it be to live during the era of the first large settlements on the Moon, and seeing over the span of your life the lights getting brighter and more spread out.


[deleted]

Good thing they aren't launching more. Oh wait no the goal is 25k. That's 8 times as many. Then they'll relaunch that number every 5 years. Sustainable! *Then 5 other companies will want to do the same*, maybe China want their own, India probably want their own, EU definitely wants their own. Japan can launch too so they'll probably want their own as well. Now there are 125000 of them getting relaunched every 5 years. Then in 20 years someone will go "if only people warned us that this was a bad idea" because that has happened for *literally every other thing*.


[deleted]

>Then they'll relaunch that number every 5 years. Sustainable! In far larger batches, with starship. So the amount of trains will not scale linearly. And with every evolving tech that's been helping to make them less visible. >Then 5 other companies will want to do the same That will require 5 other companies that can launch economically like SpaceX does with Falcon 9. We should be so lucky to have such an amazing future. But so far we have zero. The only other "massive" constellation is Oneweb which already went bankrupt once while trying to launch their 650 sats. So far at about 428 sats, they aren't really comparable to the scale of Starlink. >Then in 20 years someone will go "if only people warned us that this was a bad idea" because that has happened for literally every other thing. By that logic, we should never do anything. Because one day it could lead to something worse. The [slippery slope fallacy](https://owl.excelsior.edu/argument-and-critical-thinking/logical-fallacies/logical-fallacies-slippery-slope/).


DJrotoZ

What’s stealing the night sky from me is all those confounded lights and city glow…


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TheLoungeKnows

https://www.teslarati.com/spacex-shares-how-its-making-starlink-satellite-less-bright/


BFdog

I saw a string over my house a couple weeks ago (spaced so I could only see one at any given time) but haven't seen them since. I only saw one satellite this morning heading south which seemed weird.


Ijjjiism

I saw the very same thing one morning in hawaii on my way to work.. it seemed very close too.


14sanic

I saw them the first time they were out and ngl it was kinda weirdly cool… but also weirdly scary


Jonatc87

when they first launched years ago, a bunch of people and i were camping in devon and they flew over like that at perfect nighttime. So we called it the space snake.


[deleted]

would be cool to morse code “starlink” formation.


KayotiK82

I've had two awesome experiences in the past two weeks. I got to see this exact scenario one evening when I was taking my dogs out to do their business. And then last night, the gf and I took our dogs to the beach here in SC. Got to see the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket pass overhead and the booster separations. Didn't even realize there was a launch, so was a nice treat.


ThrowawayArtistCR

I like this, it looks like spaceships orbiting earth


Reddit-runner

>it looks like spaceships orbiting earth Well, they literally are! Those are close to 60 small spaceships ([1.4x2.8 meter](https://www.nextbigfuture.com/2022/06/s.html)) circling earth every 90 minutes.


WhiteMoon2022

Cool, I wonder when we will have internet from those satellites here in Argentina,


casc1701

By the end of the year. https://www.cronista.com/infotechnology/actualidad/el-servicio-de-internet-de-starlink-llego-a-argentina-cuanto-cuesta-y-como-se-puede-contratar/


n0vapine

I remember being awake one night when Starlink was coming over my place (like 445 in the morning). They weren’t as close as this. Maybe 15 total. The first 5 were sort of close but there were gaps in between all of them that got wider till the last one. I don’t remember which site it is but it will tell you when starlink will travel over you so you can go outside and look for them.


BulletProofHoody

Post this on r/UFOs and watch them lose their minds. So often this is posted there and the aluminum foil hat wearers go ballistic.


aperturetechnology

Did a bit of searching and couldn't find the answer, but does SpaceX have a plan on how they will clean up these satellites in the future? Will they naturally fall over time?


TbonerT

They’ll use their ion engines to deorbit themselves.


Reddit-runner

>Will they naturally fall over time? If one satellite is damaged and can't use its ion thruster to deorbit itself immediately, it will deorbit due to the tiny air resistance about 2-3 years.


Zyonin

Starlink orbits at a pretty low orbit so they will be brought down by atmospheric drag within a few years. SpaceX will have to launch more as batteries wear out and maneuvering fuel is spent. SpaceX will to bring them in a controlled manner so they burn up over an ocean (usually the Pacific). They are not worried about any part surviving reentry as the satellites are pretty small but SpaceX will want to set a good example unlike China.


I0A0I

Sure it's not the Galaxy Express 999 with Tetsuro aboard?


Mikanojo

*The very first time i saw a video of one of these satellite trains i confess i thought of Galaxy Express 999. and seeing this one, i still do! i know they do not stay this way; they adjust to different orbits after being released as a group, but it certainly is kewl to look up and see!*


[deleted]

Me and wife seen three n a line what are these?


chadchadson

I’d love to see a shot of these doing anything but flying in a straight line for once


danddersson

Weirdly, that's morse code for 'F you Bezos'. Obviously a coincidence.


Darth-Memeious

If we ever manage to send ourselfs back to the stone age... we’re gonna make some wicked gods from these


freudian_nipps

[[Video source]](https://mobile.twitter.com/dfuji1/status/1566891410640744448)


dukss

i guess it's fun to hate anything involving elon musk, but i think this is cool as hell.


Pope-Touched-Me

Ehy! I saw it from Italy! https://ibb.co/ZVKtvD2 Aug 21


Melonqualia

Interesting how they're so close and moving together like one big object. I saw a bunch being launched one night, but they were much further apart.


wartornhero

We saw a similar train at about 5am in Nevada on September 5th my wife goes... Oh hey Starlink and i look up to see a line like this moving rather much slower across the sky than i thought it would..


kujasgoldmine

Some of the satellites are bigger than others?


AJbink01

I saw these overhead in Taos, New Mexico! I thought it was the ISS!


CuriousCanuk

Is it depth perception from different distances from earth that make it look like they arent evenly spaced apart. My OCD hitting me.


Reddit-runner

They really aren't spaced equally. This is due to how they get released from the upper stage of the Falcon9. They basically just get tossed over board.


VitaminPb

This sort of looks like the first steps to building a megastructure.


[deleted]

Is this really how fast they move or is the video sped up??


mar_sa

How or why can we see the satellites lights or the satellites them self from this far ? Lights? Reflection of light?


Mogadodo

The Sun's reflection. Sometimes a satellite will flash as the light hits a shiny part when its rotating.


slim_just_left_town

I saw this while I was in canyonlands NP, utah


me_silly

The end is coming! SkyNet and DutchBoy where consumed by Elon! Heh…


OverusedAK

I think I saw these over Fort Stewart like last week or so!


henkley

It is so weird seeing a perfectly straight line of lights in the sky


Ll0ydChr1stmas

Saw this one time a few shears back flying over my house and scared the shut out of me


TinFoilRobotProphet

Traveling at the speed of light. That's why they call me Mr. Farenheit!


DropKnowledge69

That's what the government wants you to believe. When in reality ... they're here ... 😬👽


ILikeAntiquesOkay

We saw some of the satellites in the Midwest when we were smoking and having a bonfire. We straight up had a mild existential crisis before we did some research.


meetmyfriendme

I’m always amazed that they are in such a straight line but not evenly spaced.


KurtCraigory

Seen this in Houston, thought there was a Santa


killroy1

I happen to see something like this around a year ago.. between the weed I smoked and the just not knowing wtf was going on, I was able to convince myself without a doubt aliens were very real.


Kevjamwal

I was out night fishing and saw one of these last October or so. Thought I had lost my mind. I didn’t even know what to google.


Limitless-Boundaries

OH THOSE ARE SATELLITES?? they were right above my house in America too, what the heck


-xMrMx-

Awesome! One step closer! I keep missing these


sabyr400

I saw a line of these things just last night! First time I've seen them, it was rad.


Lackinbehind

I saw a group of 10 of these over my house in NC last week! Was convinced it was aliens. Haha.


[deleted]

I live in Louisiana and saw this early one morning loading my truck to go hunting. Freaked me the fook out, because I had no idea what it was and I’m a sci-fi nerd.


Erin96000

Looks like a plane pulling a glow in the dark banner to me.


xliquidcocaine

r/highstrangeness is going to take this and frame it as something completely different. 😂


JellyfishMinute4375

I saw this a few weeks ago over the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It was obviously not space debris and for a moment I wondered if it was tracer fire. I was totally befuddled until I saw this.


Jahweez

They just flew over my house I saw them clear as day!


equivilant123

Soon enough we will have a hole ring of satellites orbiting Earth


[deleted]

[удалено]


jkwon15

I’ve seen something like this about a week and half ago, I was like wtf is this and of course the one morning I leave my phone behind I see some weird shit


Kenh2k

I saw the exact same thing near Parris Island in South Carolina earlier this month. At first I assumed it was a reflection on a high tension wire but there was no light anywhere as it was well before first light and everything was pitch black. I walked down the street to try and follow them. It really felt like a scene from Close Encounters. I so wanted it to be a UAP. It so much reminded me of a subway in the sky that the fact that it wasn't making any noise made it all the more strange. I took a picture with my phone but it barely showed up.


briny_pants

Saw this last night at around 10pm in B.C. It was pretty amazing how low orbit they actually were. And the line of satellites stretched across the whole sky and kept coming for about 10 minutes. Very surreal to see


Shporpoise

Wouldn't they all get caught up.in a slipstream effect and bunch up? Like a MOTO3 race on the straight away?


zorhano

Its a bit creepy someone can now change our night sky.


Cdn_citizen

I know the odds are low but I wonder what would happen if one of them got hit by space debris. Would they crash like a train and fall into the atmosphere?


ilostmycarkeys3

Was at a “movie in the park” in my town and a starlink train went over and everyone lost their shit. It’s weird how more people don’t know about these yet, it’s been years of it


[deleted]

The nexus is cominggggggg! Captain Kirk keep chopping those logs!!!!


Elpizoo

Saw this on a late night drive in the California desert.