Can you see the Starlink train tonight?

Not right now: the most recent Starlink groups have already spread out along their orbits, so you’d see individual moving dots rather than the tight “string of pearls”. The next Falcon 9 Starlink launch (there’s usually one within days) creates the next train, and this page recomputes daily; check back after the next launch.

Starlink 2026-159: ~24 satellites, dispersed

No longer a train to the eye: the satellites have drifted minutes apart and read as individual moving dots. Along-orbit spread: 330°; the whole group takes about 87 minutes to file past a fixed point in the sky. At that spacing it no longer looks like a train. Orbital elements: 2 h old, SpaceX-supplied.

Times are for the middle of the group; the leading edge arrives ~44 min earlier. City links open that city’s ISS page. Not listed? Within ~100 miles of a listed city, times shift by only a few minutes.

Starlink 2026-157: ~29 satellites, dispersed

No longer a train to the eye: the satellites have drifted minutes apart and read as individual moving dots. Along-orbit spread: 325°; the whole group takes about 86 minutes to file past a fixed point in the sky. At that spacing it no longer looks like a train. Orbital elements: 2 h old, SpaceX-supplied.

Times are for the middle of the group; the leading edge arrives ~43 min earlier. City links open that city’s ISS page. Not listed? Within ~100 miles of a listed city, times shift by only a few minutes.

Starlink 2026-154: ~29 satellites, dispersed

No longer a train to the eye: the satellites have drifted minutes apart and read as individual moving dots. Along-orbit spread: 337°; the whole group takes about 89 minutes to file past a fixed point in the sky. At that spacing it no longer looks like a train. Orbital elements: 2 h old, SpaceX-supplied.

Times are for the middle of the group; the leading edge arrives ~45 min earlier. City links open that city’s ISS page. Not listed? Within ~100 miles of a listed city, times shift by only a few minutes.

What is the Starlink train?

Every Starlink launch releases ~two dozen satellites into the same low orbit at once. For the first days they fly nearly single-file: a bright, evenly spaced line that crosses the sky in a few minutes and looks like nothing else. As each satellite raises its own orbit toward its working altitude, the line stretches, gaps open, and after one to three weeks the train dissolves into the general satellite background.

Why it disappears mid-sky

A Starlink train has no lights of its own: what you see is reflected sunlight. You can only spot it while your sky is dark but the satellite, 250+ miles up, is still catching the sun. The moment its orbit carries it into Earth’s shadow, it fades out within seconds, often high overhead, nowhere near the horizon. Most trackers leave you staring at an empty sky; the tables here print that exact fade-out moment, computed from the same twilight math we use for rocket-launch visibility.

How accurate are these times?

Fresh trains are the hardest satellites to predict: they maneuver almost daily while raising orbit. We use SpaceX-supplied supplemental orbital elements (the most accurate public source, reflecting planned maneuvers) and recompute this page every day. Expect times good to within seconds when elements are fresh, drifting toward a minute or two if they age a few days. Pass times are for the middle of the train; the leading edge arrives earlier by half the train’s span.

The next train is created by the next Starlink launch, and launches are what our free alerts cover. Leave your email and we’ll tell you when one you can see is coming up.