ST. LOUIS – SpaceX launched more than 50 Starlink satellites into the sky Saturday night, and it made for some impressive sights over the Midwest, including St. Louis.
Eric Schwenke from Florissant was able to capture the line of moving lights and shared the image on Facebook.
The site ofallonwather.org also caught the satellites going by, posting they were brightest just before 8:15pm CDT Saturday night. There was also a report of a sighting in St. Peters.
The company’s Falcon 9 rocket launched the 52 Starlink satellites into low-Earth orbit from Space Launch Complex 40 at the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 6:32 p.m. CDT.
The launch came ahead of what is now Hurricane Ian, forcing NASA to scrub the third attempt of the Artemis I moon mission. The next Starlink mission is scheduled for September 30, but that may be changed due to the storm.
About the mission
The Starlink satellites provide internet access to most parts of the planet, stated the company that is operated by SpaceX.
Before Saturday night’s launch, astronomer Dr. Jonathan McDowell, of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, recorded the following: 3,075 Starlink satellites are in orbit, with 3,029 that are working and 2,499 that are operational.