Can you see the Starlink train tonight?
Live train data is temporarily unavailable: we couldn’t reach the orbital-elements feed on the last rebuild. This page recomputes daily, so it’s usually back within hours. What you’d be looking for, and why trains vanish mid-sky, is explained below.
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.
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Starlink train FAQ
What is 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, still flying in a tight file days after liftoff. They look like a string of star-bright dots gliding in a perfectly straight line, evenly spaced, with no blinking. Each new Starlink launch creates a new train.
What time does the Starlink train pass tonight?
Live times are temporarily unavailable; the page recomputes daily from SpaceX-supplied orbital elements and is usually back within hours.
Why did the Starlink train disappear mid-sky?
Two reasons. Tonight: the satellites flew into Earth's shadow: they only shine by reflected sunlight, so they fade out within seconds, often while still high overhead. Our tables print that exact moment. Over the weeks: the satellites raise their orbits and spread out along the ring, so the tight train dissolves into individual faint dots that are deliberately darkened once on station.