December 3, 2021. A trail of lights across the night sky of Illinois. Could it be Santa Claus? No, it’s much too early for that. Instead, it’s the orderly train of Starlink satellites once again.
Check this out: The Tribune (India) recently claimed that some locals were left “puzzled” by the sight of strange bright lights in the sky. Similar accounts happened in Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Colorado this month, where many apparently jumped online to share their stories, and even contacted their local news stations for info. KDKA-TV in Pittsburgh said as much — apparently, they had viewers concerned that it might’ve been a UFO or, given the time of year, Santa Claus.
Hey, maybe it’s a joke, but I do have a short list of actual Santa Claus sightings floating around.
But, you know, the strange lights in this case aren’t Santa or UFOs or rips in the spacetime continuum. These were probably related to SpaceX’s recent launch of 48 new Starlink satellites on, you guessed it, December 3, later followed by the launch of another 52 just this past weekend. The satellites are capable of providing high-speed internet service to pretty much the entire planet, but they don’t grant wishes or deliver holiday gifts, which is unfortunate.
The entire Starlink satellite constellation consists of over 1,600 individual satellites.
