After a bright trail of SpaceX Starlink satellites was noticed in the skies of Uttar Pradesh on 12 September 2022, several visuals started circulating on social media claiming to show the Starlink satellites from the state.
SpaceX started launching Starlink satellites in 2019 and their most recent one was launched on 10 September 2022, when Falcon 9 rocket lifted off carrying 34 Starlink internet satellites to orbit.
However, two of the most shared videos are old and unrelated. One of them dates back to 2020 while the other is from 2021, as confirmed by their creators.
CLAIM
Many users, including Times Now Navbharat's Deputy News Editor, Shivani Sharma, shared the video to claim that this showed the "51 Starlink internet satellite spotted in Uttar Pradesh."
Another video which showed a light trail was also shared with a similar claim.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We found out that old videos from 2020 and 2021 are being falsely linked to the launch of SpaceX Starlink satellites that were visible in some parts of India.
VIDEO 1
We conducted a reverse image search on one of the keyframes of the video on Google Images and came across a YouTube video from 4 December 2021.
The 2:17 length video was uploaded by a channel called 'ViralVideoLab', that regularly posts high quality videos of the Starlink satellites in the sky.
The description of the video clarified that this video shows the Starlink satellites by SpaceX.
We also compared the viral video with the YouTube video and found similarities.
The Quint then contacted the person who runs this YouTube channel, Dominic, who informed us that he has shot this video on 3 December 2021.
On 2 December 2021, SpaceX had launched Falcon 9 with 48 Starlink satellites and two BlackSky spacecraft to orbit from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida.
VIDEO 2
On conducting a reverse image search on some of the keyframes of the video, we came across a YouTube video from 11 January 2021.
The video was uploaded by a channel named 'Night Sky' and the description read, "Starlink satellites train seen from Poland. Starlink is a satellite constellation being constructed by SpaceX in order to provide satellite Internet access."
On comparing the viral video with the 2020 video, we found similarities between the two.
The Quint also reached out to Nocne Niebo, the creator of the video, who told us that he shot this video on 10 August 2020 from Poland. He also sent us a longer version of the same incident.
It is true that SpaceX launched 34 Starlink satellites and AST SpaceMobile’s BlueWalker 3 satellite to orbit from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on 10 September 2022 and some parts of Uttar Pradesh also witnessed their trail but these visuals are unrelated to it.
Clearly, old videos from 2020 and 2021 are being falsely linked to the recent sight of Starlink satellites in India.
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