Curious Australian Community Media (ACM) reader James Cross last week snapped the image above on his way back from work early on the morning of Friday January 31.
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He noticed the strange string of lights in the sky and as anyone in his situation would, James got his phone out and snapped what he saw.
The slightly-angled, horizontal streak of lights were moving slowly across the sky. This was no shooting star visible only for a moment. This persisted.
James also captured a video, which shows the lights moving slowly across the sky - albeit a bit blurry.
After some back and forth and a bit of internet sleuthing, James and his friend Jason came to the conclusion that the lights could have in fact been part of a 'Starlink' array.
SpaceX, a private aerospace company founded in 2002 by entrepreneur Elon Musk launched the Starlink initiative in 2015 with a stated aim to 'provide internet access around the world, especially in rural areas where access has been unreliable, expensive, or completely unavailable.'
This 'mega-constellation' of satellites will - if successful - provide uninterrupted internet access anywhere in the world. SpaceX also plans to sell some of the satellites for military or scientific purposes.
SpaceX has to-date launched 242 satellites into orbit with 60 of that total being launched just last week.
The Mudgee Guardian understands that the lights that James saw were in fact Starlink satellites in lower-Earth-orbit as they rise to their peak altitude to more than 500 km.
A representative from SpaceX described the process to the Mudgee Guardian.
'Starlink satellite flight operations take place in three phases: orbit raise, onstation service, and deorbit,' they wrote.
'After deployment, over the course of one to four months, the satellites use their onboard thrusters to raise from an altitude of 290 km to 550 km. During this phase of flight the satellites are closely clustered and their solar arrays are in a special low-drag configuration, making them appear more visible from the ground.'
James is not alone in his initial confusion about what he was seeing, with numerous reports around the world citing people calling the Starlink satellites UFOs. In fact there were so many reports that SpaceX responded to the concerns by suggesting they would paint portions of satellites black in an effort to reduce their reflectiveness.
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