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Long trail of satellites dazzle night sky over the Okanagan

SpaceX’s Elon Musk end goal is to launch 40,000 satellites into space
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Riley Christie took this impressive photo in Penticton of the newly launched Starlink satellites crossing Okanagan night skies. (Facebook)

Have you noticed the long train of lights crossing the night sky lately?

People have counted more than 50 Starlink satellites which have been launching into space about once a week and are making appearances in Okanagan skies courtesy of SpaceX’s satellites.

Between 8 and 9 p.m., people have been seeing the unsually long train of SpaceX satellites travel west to east and then disappear.

SpaceX has been launching roughly 40 to 50 satellites into low-earth orbit at a pace of once per week, the first launch on Sept. 18 from Cape Canaveral Space Station in Florida.

According to a website findstarlink.com, Starlink satellites will be able to seen in the Okanagan on Sunday, Oct. 2 at 7:26 p.m. looking northwest to east and again on Oct. 3 at 7:51 p.m.

Starlink is a satellite constellation initiative started by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk (Tesla) with the goal to create global internet coverage especially for remote areas of the world.

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According to techtarget.com, Musk’s Starlink wants to eventually launch 40,000 satellites.

Instead of using a couple of large satellites, Starlink uses thousands of small satellites, said tech target.

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Monique Tamminga

About the Author: Monique Tamminga

Monique brings 20 years of award-winning journalism experience to the role of editor at the Penticton Western News. Of those years, 17 were spent working as a senior reporter and acting editor with the Langley Advance Times.
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