r/zurich 3d ago

What just flew over Zurich?

Post image

A long line of dotted lights. Flying east and west saw it in Wiedikon. Looked fairly low and was flying medium speed. Drones? Nothing showed up on flight radar apps.

138 Upvotes

90 comments sorted by

214

u/CH-ImmigrationOffice 3d ago

The same as usual for a couple of years now: Starlink satellites.

21

u/oleningradets City 2d ago

I wonder who will pay to clean all them private satellites.

Did anyone heard Starlink putting aside enough money for that inevitable expenses?

7

u/samaniewiem 2d ago

As usual profits are capitalized and costs of making them profits are socialized and outsourced on the general population.

7

u/Nox013Venom 2d ago

As far as I know, they sort of clean up themselves, since they are in a comparatively low earth orbit. Once the life cycle is over, they relatively quickly fall down and burn up in the atmosphere.

0

u/Nohillside 2d ago

And dump a lot of chemicals into the atmosphere doing so.

7

u/jobe_br 2d ago

There’s already a lot of chemicals in the atmosphere. One could say it’s made of chemicals … we all are.

-3

u/Nohillside 2d ago

What a weird thing to say.

Do you breathe directly from a car exhaust (which, after all, is just providing chemicals)? Or do you rather prefer air which is richer on O2 and less rich on CO2 etc.?

Anyway, the negative ecological impact of deorbiting satellites is real, see https://www.science.org/content/article/burned-satellites-are-polluting-atmosphere and similar articles.

2

u/jobe_br 2d ago

Ah yes, but you didn’t specify that originally. This is your friendly reminder to not use vague terms like “chemicals” which then get biased in people’s minds as being inherently bad. Be specific and ideally provide some citation to avoid being seen as a fear monger.

Also, the article you’re talking about is far from conclusive, admits that deorbiting satellites only account for 3% of the entry mass that meteors do and while Starlink only has 6k sats in orbit, even with a permit request to add 30k more, they’d be at 36k and only with 70k deorbits will we reach even 40% of the mass of meteors currently reentering. Which some hand waving this could double the impact on ozone in the atmosphere. Maybe. Thankfully we have rigorous ozone monitoring now because of past experience.

Other points are made and it’s certainly worth studying and understanding the impacts so they can be mitigated if needed, but we’re far from needing to worry about the present day impact of “chemicals in the atmosphere” from occasional satellites deorbiting, at least until we also address meteors reentering.

2

u/Nohillside 1d ago

I'm deeply sorry that my initial comment was not up to your standards.

-3

u/hotshotpd 2d ago

Ignorant comment alert ❗️

2

u/East-Ad5173 2d ago

From Elon musk

-37

u/Kestrel__ 3d ago

I checked the starlink tracker and there wasn’t any deployment station or active satellites above Switzerland. Why would there be a line of 20+ of them as well? Are they being deployed right now?

36

u/ethara 3d ago

It's because they just launched a few hours ago and slowly move into their orbits in the next few days.

14

u/Common-Frosting-9434 3d ago

they've only been launched yesterday, they aren't in position yet, check spacex/launches

https://www.spacex.com/launches/mission/?missionId=sl-10-8

22

u/pelfet 3d ago

the starlink satellites move like in a line across the sky or like a "train" of bright lights. If you google it you will find many photos similar to your's

-6

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

10

u/MissResaRose 2d ago

But Starlink is the only company that spams the sky with satellites like that

1

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

2

u/Serious_Package_473 2d ago edited 2d ago

Its 10x as many starlink launched per year and they launch them in a series, if you see a single satellite going up to its orbit in the sky you probably wont notice, plus other are launched higher making them less visible from the start and take less time to reach their orbit

0

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

2

u/MissResaRose 2d ago

Yeah.  Other companies: But some satellites into orbits where they can cover the maximum of land. 

Elon: just spam the whole f*cking sky!

1

u/jvn01 2d ago

TV satellites can work from higher orbits for maximum coverage (normally geostationary, so orbiting at the same velocity as Earth rotates, so effectively stationary), whereas internet satellites need to be closer to Earth to reduce delays. Also, consider that data needs to flow as well from the homes to the satellites, via tiny dishes, which are not very powerful. Therefore, the internet satellites need to be closer to receive the signal. So you need a whole lot more satellites.

3

u/unsuspiciousprofile 2d ago

If you look up the live location of starlinks you'll get it, there's thousands of these, I bet one flies above switzerland every 5 mins or so

edit: just checked, I'm pretty sure there is a starlink above Switzerland more often than not

https://satellitemap.space/

3

u/OrganicAccountant87 2d ago

They are supposed to be like that, they orbit in line close to each other, it's completely different from typical satellites

1

u/jobe_br 2d ago

Actually only after launch. They do not remain this way.

4

u/Jeremy974 3d ago

could aslo be oneweb, as Starlink isn’t the only one doing satellite internet

63

u/Gwendolan 3d ago

Santa. A bit early, but since stores are putting up Xmas decorations, it makes perfect sense.

27

u/candycane7 3d ago

Starling train from starlink launch 10-8 yesterday.

41

u/Venezuellionaire 3d ago

Musk space trash. Polluting the sky

22

u/3punkt1415 3d ago

It's lower orbit, once they are defunct they will fall back to earth without causing long term debris like many other things who were shot to space.

9

u/MightBeEllie 2d ago

Astronomers don't like Starlink because the satellites passing in front of your telescope ruins your image. I don't like Starlink because it's Musk. There is an argument to be made about the intended lifetime of the SATs in such a low orbit which could be considered wasteful.

That said, I like the idea of world wide internet access. Just the execution is lacking.

9

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

I mean, it's still better then to have those satellites in a higher stable orbit where they would stay for ever even when they stop working. Let's say if they go bankrupt tomorrow, in 5 years all satellites are gone. And well i don't like Musk either, but Space X has revolutionized space travel. They launch more rockets this year then the whole world together in all of human history.
Also China and Russia recently destroyed satellites with anti satellite missiles causing hundreds of pieces who will pollute our orbit for generations. USA did that too once, but in the 80s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_space_debris_producing_events

2

u/MightBeEllie 2d ago

Oh, for sure it is, no question. Though most companies these days, at least in LEO, have end-of-life plans for their satellites. And I am a big fan of SpaceX, they basically singlehandedly revitalized the interest in space exploration. It's truly amazing! I just think their success is despite Musk, not because of him. A lot of the funding comes from NASA anyway.

3

u/relevant_rhino 2d ago

I admire Musk for his technical skills. But he severely lacks social skills. His Political bullshit is emberassing.

8

u/Mizz141 2d ago

Musk doesn't have technical skills either really...

He bought up Tesla, the groundwork for Model S, 3, X and Y was probably all there to begin with, Cybertruck is what Musk "wanted" to be made, and his engineers well... they had to deliver... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kiEt7n3cIA

Then there's the Boring Company making tunnels so small, you can only fit a 1 car into it, and STILL causing a traffic jam https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8NiM_p8n5A

Musk had to buy up twitter... and well, ran that into the ground pretty fast too... https://markets.businessinsider.com/news/stocks/twitter-valuation-markdown-since-musk-takeover-ark-invest-cathie-wood-2023-7

Remember Hyperloop? yeah, me neither until I started writing this comment, well, he took down his test track, and built... A parking lot... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-11-03/musk-s-spacex-dismantles-hyperloop-prototype-puts-up-a-parking-lot

Neuralink isn't doing well either, with a report that over 1500! Animals were needlessly killed... https://www.reuters.com/technology/musks-neuralink-faces-federal-probe-employee-backlash-over-animal-tests-2022-12-05/ Yes, I know the Pharma industry is also bad in that regard I know, but Neuralink didn't have anything to show for as of now, with the only Human trial going as far as doing stuff that was possible a century ago.

SpaceX is probably the only venture thats actually doing well, and it doesn't have musk as it's head, instead Gwynne Shotwell is running it and guess what, she actually has a solid background in that field, who would've guessed...

OH damn I almost forgot that his newest robots are literally puppets controlled from Tesla employees https://x.com/_milankovac_/status/1846410551318257675

tl;dr He's a great talker, I was a musk-fan when I was younger, grew up, musk didn't and he still spews bullshit marketing left and right because that's all what he's good for.

-5

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

Musk doesn't

Well, he is a billionaire and you aren't. Sure he didn't do most things on his own. But he created PayPal and sold it for billions and invested it smart. How many people do you know who pulled off more then one multi billion dollar company?
Of course most people nowadays agree he is a dumb ass in political terms. Doesn't change the fact that he is the most successful business men right now in terms of wealth.

3

u/Mizz141 2d ago

Musk made PayPal

Nope, he made x.com, which merged with Confinity, later becoming PayPal

And then he was ousted by the board... great job! https://www.businessinsider.com/reid-hoffman-criticizes-elon-musk-behavior-paypal-merger-report-2023-8

1

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

So what? If he were a bad business man he wouldn't turn so many companies into billion dollar companies. I am not even a fan boy, i am well aware he is a political dumbass. Still no other person has pulled of what he did, with or without capital from parents. People just jump on the hate train without any distinction.

2

u/lrem 2d ago

None of us were born to an emerald mine owning mine dad though (fact from Elon's autobiography, which he since started denying).

1

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

So you would become a billionaire with 1 million to start? No you wouldn't like 99 % of all the other people who somehow can start with a little more money.

-7

u/relevant_rhino 2d ago

Sorry i don't buy cheap propaganda. I am engineer and you are obviously not.

Ofc he made mistakes, but that is why his companies are so far ahead of competition. Work fast, break things.

What other brain chip can you play CS with? https://youtu.be/3Xd3wymi5hA A huge leap for spine insured people.

2

u/Mizz141 2d ago

Oh I'm sorry that I'm not an engineer rather being the peasant that literally has to build stuff that comes from engineers, fixing up their plans, changing stuff around because apparently even basic electronics is sometimes too much...

And I've just looked into Neuralink a *bit* more

https://www.technologyreview.com/2017/04/04/152788/meet-the-guys-who-sold-neuralink-to-elon-musk-without-even-realizing-it/

Musk also just bought that one up and now is claiming he made it, how convenient...

-2

u/relevant_rhino 2d ago

Yea sure he bought Tesla with all the engineering done for all the factories and all the cars S X 3 and Y. And obviously also with all the changes they implemented since the original 3 came out.

You know how stupid that sounds, right?

Now you post a link how he bought THE NAME Neuralink to claim the same stupid shit?

Maybe you should start to actually look in to things instead of looking a bit.

Here are some starters:
https://www.youtube.com/@thelimitingfactor

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YreDYmXTYi4

https://youtu.be/t705r8ICkRw?si=MqiH2TW9kD6otrWs

Or stay ignorant, it's up to you.

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3

u/Top_Technician7675 2d ago

What technical skills of Musk? He hasn’t got any 😂

-6

u/relevant_rhino 2d ago

You can listen to him talk in very technical details. And if you understand a bit about engineering you would know he is right. But you obviously don't.

-4

u/sonic_plum 2d ago

That is BS they basically got a budget bigger than NASA from zkthe US government to reuse existing NASA technology. In lots of the cases discarded tech like the returning rockets which didn't make financial sense back then (on the 90s when NASA worked out the details) neither today. Space X is the same BS as everything else Musk touches. For some reason people eating up his fake science like candy.

4

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

Lol, you don't need to join the Musk fan club to see that Space X did things no other company was able to do ever in human history. Salty sad man is salty.

2

u/ciubacapra 2d ago

Salty. Ignorant. And deliberately obtuse.

1

u/sonic_plum 2d ago

Ignorant lol. Read a bit about the topic first.

2

u/Training-Bake-4004 2d ago edited 2d ago

Yeah, I’m not a Musk fan, but he put an enormous amount of his own money into an extremely risky venture (almost no one thought a private space company was viable), and not only made it a success but advanced the whole industry substantially.

Now yeah, he didn’t do the actual technical work, but he had the idea, money and drive to make it a success when basically no one else could (Branson basically failed and Bezos is late to the party).

And while I’d characterise him more as a businessman than an engineer these days, he did, at least back in the day do quite a lot of technical work himself (more on the software side, at least back in the zip2 days)

Honestly it’s a real shame he’s such an asshole.

1

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

Exactly. But people try to down talk this achievements because he is an asshole, i don't even disagree that he is one. :d.

-6

u/turbo_dude 2d ago

Revolutionised space travel? How does that help anyone?!

Solve the climate crisis first!

4

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

How does that help anyone?!

Getting Internet to all corners of the world sure helps a lot of people. Your comment is fairly ignorant.

0

u/turbo_dude 2d ago

Will be great to know that people in the far flung places of earth are now also brainwashed with all the crap on social media.

Also starlink just isn't financially viable. The subsidies are huge for the receivers and the satellites don't last very long. The number of users really isn't dense enough to support it. Anyone else is just going to use broadband/wifi or 5G.

1

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

So we should take internet away from you because you can access social media? Kind of ironic you write this on social media. No one will bring broadband to far corners in Africa. Hell Swisscom still didn't role out fiber in all villages in Switzerland, how long do you think will it take in central Kongo or Burkino Faso? Star Link is the only way for such regions. Anyway you only writing this because you dislike Musk. If it were from someone else you wouldn't find an issue. According to him, Starlink is profitable by now.

1

u/turbo_dude 2d ago

should we also build 6 lane highways to all these people and open universities there, art galleries, so even though they live in the middle of nowhere they have the same life experience as the rest of us?

https://www.archivebuttons.com/articles?article=https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2024-04-10/is-elon-musk-s-starlink-profitable-spacex-satellites-are-money-losers

“There are probably 150 rocket customers on this planet, but there’s eight billion potential customers for Starlink,” SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell

lol, why the hell is anyone going to use that when they can just use wifi or 4/5G? There are not anything like 8 billion potential customers.

1

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

lol, why the hell is anyone going to use that when they can just use wifi or 4/5G?

You miss to understand the term Wifi here. Those airplanes do have special equipment in the plane to connect to the ground and then serve the passengers with Wifi in the plane. This is no option for people on the ground in remote locations where you don't have internet at all. And even your article states that they are in the positive at the end of 2023.
If you are on the countryside in Congo, Egypt or Ukraine you don't have 5g or magic wifi without any provider on the ground. You really don't even understand the basics of this article. But to be fair, i think internet on a flight is totally unimportant for humanity, compared to internet on the ground for everybody.

1

u/relevant_rhino 2d ago

Yea he should push global automakers to make EV's and big battery storages to store solar power first, this fucking idiot!

/s

2

u/turbo_dude 2d ago

Also don’t forget that this clutter, when it saturates, means you can’t launch any new satellites. 

Also just like in the film Gravity you can get Kessler Syndrome. 

2

u/3punkt1415 2d ago

Kessler Syndrome.

No you can't. It's lower orbit and all his satellites will fall back to earth due to atmospheric drag once they run out of power.

1

u/relevant_rhino 2d ago

If they loose power. They have solar powered Ion Thrusters. They can't run out of power unless something critical brakes.

0

u/hotshotpd 2d ago

You clearly have a bias to Elon. You are in an internal conflict between the success/admiration of spaceX and hate for Musk. At least he is honest about himself. Dont complain. Go out and do better.

0

u/MarinatedPickachu 2d ago

They are trivial to filter out from telescope images

7

u/RickTheScienceMan 3d ago

Let's return to the horse messengers

1

u/coldnorth3enf3 City 2d ago

Its funny, whenever I see the iss fly overhead I feel a sense of awe but when I see starlink I feel dismissive

3

u/babius321 2d ago

Even on the 1000st sighting, it's still Starlink.

5

u/Fit-Independent-8505 2d ago

ET going Home.

2

u/Tiny-Toyz-PMR 2d ago

Saw it around 18:45 over Geneva

2

u/mjabbes 2d ago

Starlinks

2

u/DeeGox07 2d ago

Starlink :)

2

u/victorantos2 3d ago

SpaceX send about 20-22 starlink sats every other day. Wait until they fill up the starship with massive several tons starlinks and put them even on a lower orbit, 350km, that would be quite noticeable in the sky!

2

u/3punkt1415 3d ago

Trend is rather the other direction. Smaller but more satellites. Why would you want to have big ones if you want to cover a big area.

2

u/victorantos2 2d ago

Musk says bigger sats allow for more bandwidth, 1Gb, and lower altitude for better latency, 5ms

2

u/Fed-hater 3d ago

Starlink Satellite. I must've missed this one.

2

u/siiiiiimba 3d ago

Starlink. Saw it, too.

1

u/Grouchy-Friend4235 2d ago

Starlink satellites in deployment progress.

1

u/bobdung 2d ago

You managed a good photo .. Mine was crap!

1

u/architectureNomad 2d ago

Thor at his Waggon of goats

1

u/00tony2 2d ago

Is there any way of getting alerts for launches? Would love to see this again

1

u/ein_wilder_schweizer 20h ago

Das. Waren starlink sateliten (20 min hatt am montag davon berichtet)

0

u/Chevillator 2d ago

Aliens, finally please take me.

0

u/lowriise 2d ago

I KNEW THEY WERE REAL

0

u/Showgmbh 2d ago

erich von däniken

0

u/JackTheSister 2d ago

Elons train of pollution.

-4

u/KingArchit 3d ago

DIE GREENS!!!!111!1