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Are there any related groups of satellites that are in a line of 6 or more in a row?

Space Exploration Asked by DEAD_MAN_ WALKING on September 28, 2021

02/03/20 0450hrs, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Uk. I saw a satellite going across the sky, it was not too bright and was followed by another and then 4 more they were equally spaced. I would say they were 2-4 miles apart, a third of the sky apart if that makes sense. They were travelling West to East, they were following the same trajectory and following a straight path.
Does any one know what this could have been?

3 Answers

Yes, loads! You can see the StarLink trains at Heavens Abve:

StarLink satellite trains

Answered by Dan Dascalescu on September 28, 2021

Supplemental answer to

Are there any related groups of satellites that are in a line of 6 or more in a row?

Yes No, (while) the A-train is a bunch of satellites in a row, it seems that Wikipedia says there are only 5 even though the picture shows six.

The A-train (from Afternoon Train) is a satellite constellation of five Earth observation satellites of varied nationality in sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 705 km (438 mi) above the Earth.

The orbit, at an inclination of 98.14°, crosses the equator each day at around 1:30 pm solar time, giving the constellation its name (the "A" stands for "afternoon"[2]) and crosses the equator again on the night side of the Earth, at around 1:30 am.

They are spaced a few minutes apart from each other so their collective observations may be used to build high-definition three-dimensional images of the Earth's atmosphere and surface.

Did you see the A-train?

Ignoring the not six problem, it's still probably not, because they move in a polar orbit so would be North-South or South-North, and the highest passes would be 1:30 AM local time (the other half of the Sun-synchronous 1:30 PM orbit)

enter image description here

Answered by uhoh on September 28, 2021

Very likely you have seen Starlink Satellites. A view we all have more often in the future...

Assuming you mean 0450 local which is more or less greenwich-time which does not differ much from UTC.

Just one thing: They are around 100 km appart ;-)

Plot for 02/03/20 0450hrs, Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK. click for full size view

02/03/20 0450hrs, in Bradford, West Yorkshire, Uk.

Answered by CallMeTom on September 28, 2021

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