What did I just see in the sky?
A single bright moving light, a straight line of dots, a glowing streak: here is everything that actually crossed the sky in the last 48 hours. No rockets launched, so the ISS and Starlink are the usual suspects; both are below, city by city.
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Rockets launched in the last 48 hours
Quiet night: nothing launched in the last 48 hours. The next one up is Falcon Heavy | Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, today.
Bright lights over the big cities: ISS passes, last 48 hours
ISS pass times are temporarily unavailable: we couldn’t reach the orbital-elements feed on the last rebuild. This page recomputes daily, so they’re usually back within hours. Browse the per-city pass tables.
The line of lights: the newest Starlink train
Live Starlink-train data is temporarily unavailable: we couldn’t reach the orbital-elements feed on the last rebuild. A straight line of evenly spaced lights is almost always a recent Starlink launch; the train page recomputes daily.
The next visible one
Falcon Heavy | Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (SpaceX) is up next: today, Aug 30, 2026, 7:25 AM ET, from Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA. See whether it will be visible from where you are →
More launch schedules
Today · Tonight · This week · Full schedule
Saw a red or pink glow? Aurora, or something else · Northern lights tonight, city by city
What did I just see? FAQ
What was the bright light in the sky just now?
If it was a single steady light crossing the whole sky in a few minutes with no blinking, it was almost certainly the ISS or another satellite; the pass table above shows the most recent ISS pass over each big city. If it blinked or had red and green lights, it was a plane. If it was a climbing flame, a glowing cone or a comet-like plume, it was a rocket launch: though nothing launched in the last 48 hours, so check the ISS table first.
What was the line of lights moving across the sky?
Almost certainly a Starlink train: a batch of 20-plus internet satellites released together from a single Falcon 9 launch, flying single-file for days afterward. They look like a string of star-bright dots gliding in a perfectly straight line, evenly spaced, no blinking.
What did I just see in the sky?
Work through it: one steady bright light crossing in 3-6 minutes = the ISS or a satellite. A straight line of evenly spaced dots = a Starlink train. A climbing flame, glowing cone or spiral = a rocket launch (check the last-48-hours list on this page). Blinking, or red/green lights = an aircraft. A fast streak lasting under a couple of seconds = a meteor.
Why did it suddenly disappear mid-sky?
Satellites shine by reflected sunlight only. The moment its orbit carried it into Earth’s shadow it faded out within seconds, often high overhead, nowhere near the horizon. The pass table above prints that exact fade-out moment for each pass.