Mick West | The Problem with Starlink @MickWest | Uploaded August 2023 | Updated October 2024, 1 hour ago.
Some pilots are reporting Starlink horizon flares as UFOs. There's a real issue in that any report of UFOs carries some stigma and risk of mockery, and we should take pilot reports seriously. The problem is that by ignoring the obvious and easily testable explanations, like Starlink, we dilute the pool of genuinely anomalous reports and risk perpetuating the very stigma we are trying to avoid.
Starlink horizon flares (not the familiar trains of bright dots, but rather individual satellites that fade in and out, giving an illusion of maneuvering) are unfamiliar to many pilots, so these reports will continue. Agencies that take pilots' reports need to be aware of the technical aspects and nuances of how these things end up being perceived as dogfights on the edge of space.
Because if there actually ARE dogfights on the edge of space, we don't want to miss them.
Some pilots are reporting Starlink horizon flares as UFOs. There's a real issue in that any report of UFOs carries some stigma and risk of mockery, and we should take pilot reports seriously. The problem is that by ignoring the obvious and easily testable explanations, like Starlink, we dilute the pool of genuinely anomalous reports and risk perpetuating the very stigma we are trying to avoid.
Starlink horizon flares (not the familiar trains of bright dots, but rather individual satellites that fade in and out, giving an illusion of maneuvering) are unfamiliar to many pilots, so these reports will continue. Agencies that take pilots' reports need to be aware of the technical aspects and nuances of how these things end up being perceived as dogfights on the edge of space.
Because if there actually ARE dogfights on the edge of space, we don't want to miss them.
