On Saturday, I and several others had a social-distanced campfire gathering at the lakeshore. Not long after full darkness enveloped us, I turned away from the fire to allow the flames to warm my backside. That’s when something unlikely caught my attention.
Amid the stars stationed above
me, I saw a string of lights stretched across the sky. The lights—all spaced apart at fairly uniform
distances—were moving as if tethered together and being dragged along by forces
unseen.
Wondering if I might be
imagining what I was seeing, I called out to someone else. “Tad, come look at this. Am I seeing what I think I am seeing?”
Tad walked to my side of the
fire and peered up into the darkness. “What
is that?” he asked.
“I am not imagining that, then?
“No.”
“I know what it is. It’s Elon Musk. It’s his satellite array. I have been reading about it, but have never
seen it.”
Before long, everyone had
turned away from the fire. We all
watched the array slide across the sky.
We were witnessing the march of the Starlink chain of satellites. Mr. Musk has been using his SpaceX Starships
to plant satellites in the firmament.
The chain we saw will be part of a massive network of 12,000 satellites swarming
high above us to provide new high-speed internet connections across the world
in the future.
My first sight of the array
left me a little bewildered. I am not
convinced I like it.
Posted below is a YouTube video
of the string passing overhead.
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