Satellite trains
NONE RECENT0RECENT BATCHES
No satellite batch has launched in the last four days, so a line of moving lights tonight is less likely to be a satellite train.
SYS // OVERHEAD
What’s up there
If you saw something you can’t place, you can work it out here. This page shows what launched in the last four days, where the Space Station is right now and what fireballs were seen. It also shows what the usual causes look like from the ground.
Space station
TRACKED435KM UP
The brightest human-made object in the night sky. It's one steady white light that crosses in about five minutes and never blinks.
Recent launches
IN THE WINDOW2MISSIONS
Successful launches in the last four days, most recent first. Anything that reached orbit put something new in the sky.
Fireballs
NONE RECENT0IN 30 DAYS
No fireball has been caught by sensors anywhere in the last 30 days. The list below goes back a year.
What went up in the last four days
Every successful launch in that time, most recent first. If you saw something you can't place, start here.
Long March 12 | SatNet LEO Group 29
59 hours agoChina Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation · Wenchang Space Launch Site, People's Republic of China · 2026-11-08 20:24:00Z
Soyuz 2.1b/Fregat | Glonass-K1? (Kosmos 2621?)
90 hours agoRussian Space Forces · Plesetsk Cosmodrome, Russian Federation · 2026-11-07 13:22:00Z
What came down
A launch explains a line of lights. It doesn't explain one bright flash. These are the fireballs US Government sensors picked up, with NASA/JPL's own figures.
BOLIDE LOG
6 RECORDED
Objects big enough to be picked up breaking apart in the atmosphere, as catalogued by NASA/JPL's Center for Near-Earth Object Studies. They explain a single bright flash that lasts a second or two. Almost all of them break up tens of kilometres up, and nothing reaches the ground.
- 2026-10-04 03:14Z41.8° S, 173.1° W
0.18KT IMPACT ENERGY
Roughly 180 tonnes of TNT, released as light and heat high in the atmosphere rather than at the ground.
- BROKE UP
- 26.9 km up
- ENTRY
- 13.8 km/s · 49,680 km/h
- 2026-09-15 11:26Z37.6° S, 161.6° W
0.08KT IMPACT ENERGY
About 79 tonnes of TNT. The object was probably less than a metre across.
- BROKE UP
- 37.0 km up
- 2026-09-11 10:18Z0.2° S, 129.6° W
0.20KT IMPACT ENERGY
Roughly 200 tonnes of TNT, released as light and heat high in the atmosphere rather than at the ground.
- BROKE UP
- 70.0 km up
- 2026-09-11 01:12Z54.4° N, 100.1° W
0.67KT IMPACT ENERGY
Roughly 670 tonnes of TNT, released as light and heat high in the atmosphere rather than at the ground.
- BROKE UP
- 38.0 km up
- ENTRY
- 20.7 km/s · 74,520 km/h
- 2026-09-10 05:22Z19.3° S, 28.1° W
0.33KT IMPACT ENERGY
Roughly 330 tonnes of TNT, released as light and heat high in the atmosphere rather than at the ground.
- BROKE UP
- 33.6 km up
- ENTRY
- 19.3 km/s · 69,480 km/h
- 2026-08-15 07:32Z4.0° N, 115.4° W
0.13KT IMPACT ENERGY
Roughly 130 tonnes of TNT, released as light and heat high in the atmosphere rather than at the ground.
- BROKE UP
- 37.0 km up
What it probably was
The things people report most often, and how to tell them apart from the ground.
A satellite train
A line of evenly spaced lights, all moving together in the same direction, silent, taking a few minutes to cross the sky.
TELLCheck the launch list below. A batch launched in the last few nights is often the answer.
The Space Station
A single steady white light crossing the sky, brighter than any star and gone within a few minutes. No flashing.
TELLIt never flashes and never changes direction. The live tracker on this site says where it is right now.
A rocket plume at twilight
An expanding, glowing spiral or jellyfish-shaped cloud, sometimes enormous, usually shortly after dark or before dawn.
TELLSunlight catching exhaust in the upper atmosphere while the ground is already dark. Almost always within an hour of a launch, and visible for hundreds of kilometres.
Re-entering debris
Several fragments travelling together on the same path, glowing orange or yellow, slower than a meteor and lasting far longer.
TELLA meteor is over in a second or two. Debris re-entry can last a minute and visibly breaks apart.
A satellite flare
A brief, intense flash from a moving point of light that then fades.
TELLSunlight glinting off a flat panel. It brightens and dims smoothly rather than blinking.
An aircraft
Steady motion with red and green navigation lights and a regular strobe.
TELLAnything that blinks in a regular rhythm is almost certainly an aircraft. Satellites don't carry lights.
The official record
The original sources, linked so you can read them yourself. These servers block automated requests, so we can't open the documents. Each line says what the document is and leaves out what it concluded.
- US Department of DefenseAll-domain Anomaly Resolution Office The office the US government set up in 2022 to collect and investigate reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena in the air, in space, at sea and on land. It publishes case resolutions and annual reports to Congress.
- Office of the Director of National IntelligencePreliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena The ODNI's June 2021 assessment of UAP reports, written for Congress.
- NASAUAP Independent Study Team report An independent panel of scientists NASA asked to advise on how UAP data could be studied scientifically. Its report came out in September 2023.
- US National ArchivesProject Blue Book records Case files from the US Air Force's own investigation, which ran from 1952 to 1969.
Current reporting
Articles from the spaceflight press. They're news, and they aren't evidence. They're here because it's what's being written, and we don't vouch for any claim in them.
Arstechnica
The US military just released a bunch of UAP files, but there's no there there
Here at Ars Technica, we do not preclude the possibility that aliens have visited Earth.
Reported and summarised by Arstechnica. Opens in a new tab.
We also make Orbitburn, a gravity lander game. It's free on Android.Get it free on Google Play
Standing questions
What people ask when something bright goes over.
- I saw a line of lights moving across the sky. What was it?
- Most likely a satellite train, usually Starlink. One launch puts dozens of satellites into the same orbit, and for the first few nights they cross the sky as an evenly spaced line of steady lights. They make no sound and take two to five minutes to pass. They don't blink. Aircraft lights flash in a regular pattern and nothing in orbit does. The launches from the last four days are listed above so you can check.
- Does this site have a database of UFO sightings?
- No. The big sightings databases don't allow republishing, and the official US record from AARO and ODNI blocks requests from servers. So we link to it instead of copying it. This page tells you what was up there at the time instead. It uses the launch schedule, the Space Station's position and the catalogue of fireballs.
How this page is sourced
Launch data is from The Space Devs’ Launch Library 2. The station’s position is from a live public feed. The news is from the Spaceflight News API, which only reads spaceflight publications. We use it so tabloid stories stay off this page.
There’s no sightings database on this page. The best-known one bans scraping and copying in its own terms, and the official US archives block automated requests from servers, so we link to them for you to read. Nothing on this page says what any official report concluded.