SpaceX wraps up Starlink launches for August

Successful Starlink launches in August 2023

Starlink Group 6-8: August 6, 2023, 10:41 p.m. EDT (2:41 UTC August 7)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-20: August 7, 2023, 8:57 p.m. PDT (3:57 UTC August 8)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg SFB, California | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-9: August 11, 2023, 1:17 a.m. EDT (5:17 UTC)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-10: August 16, 2023, 11:36 p.m. EDT (3:36 UTC August 17)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 7-1: August 22, 2023, 2:37 a.m. PDT (9:37 UTC)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Vandenberg SFB, California | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-11: August 26, 2023, 9:05 p.m. EDT (1:05 UTC August 27)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | SUCCESS

Starlink Group 6-13: August 31, 2023, 10:21 p.m. EDT (2:21 UTC September 1)
Falcon 9 Block 5 | Cape Canaveral, Florida | SUCCESS

You can watch a recorded livestream of the Starlink launches on SpaceX’s YouTube channel.

After launches, look for a train of lights

Following every Starlink launch, the internet buzzes with people asking:

What’s that long line of lights in the sky that looks like a train?

What you’re seeing is the Starlink satellites moving into a higher orbit. Using the Find Starlink website, you can check to see if they will pass over your area.

Growing numbers amid controversy

According to Wikipedia, as of August 2023, Starlink consists of over 5,000 mass-produced small satellites in low Earth orbit that communicate with designated ground transceivers. They provide internet access to more than 1.5 million subscribers.

Love ’em or hate ’em, these Starlink satellites are part of SpaceX’s vision for a global internet communication satellite constellation. They deliver high-speed internet service worldwide, mainly to locations where ground-based internet is unreliable, unavailable, or expensive. So, the private company is well-known for launching batches back-to-back, several times a month, regularly lofting 60 satellites at a time. And SpaceX plans to build up to perhaps as many as 30,000 eventually.

Most thought it was exciting to see the first few Starlink satellites traveling together in the night sky. But then more were launched, and then more. And astronomers began to worry.

Because Starlinks are bright, astronomers say they’re photobombing astronomical images. Therefore, they have the potential to interfere with the professional astronomical observations that have brought us our modern-day view of the cosmos. And although SpaceX has tried to address the issue, they remain far from what astronomers say is acceptable.

Bottom line: SpaceX’s seventh and final Starlink launch for the month took flight from Florida at 10:21 p.m. EDT on August 31, 2023.

Read more from EarthSky: Starlink satellites can look like a plume or train of light

Via Next Spaceflight