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Starlink Launch Visible Across RI

[CREDIT:Evan Blissmer] The Space X Falcon 9 rocket with its latest payload of Starlink satellites. Many reported seeing the Starlink Launch visible across RI, including Anne Pinneo Blissmer in Coventry, who posted this photo by her son, Evan.

[CREDIT:Evan Blissmer] The Space X Falcon 9 rocket with its latest payload of Starlink satellites. Many reported seeing the Starlink Launch visible across RI, including Anne Pinneo Blissmer in Coventry, who posted this photo by her son, Evan.
[CREDIT:Evan Blissmer] The Space X Falcon 9 rocket with its latest payload of Starlink satellites. Many reported seeing the Starlink Launch visible across RI, including Anne Pinneo Blissmer in Coventry, who posted this photo by her son, Evan.
[CREDIT: Yervant Parnagian Jr.] A view of the Starlink rocket from Warwick.
[CREDIT: Yervant Parnagian Jr.] A view of the Starlink rocket from Warwick.
WARWICK, RI — Many reported seeing Space X’s Starlink Launch visible across RI Saturday as they captured the bright, fading ball of light streak through the night, though most didn’t know it.

The Space X Starlink launch had been set for Saturday night from Cape Canaveral at 7:32 p.m., timing confirmed by watchers throughout the state as they captured it on phones and shared images of the launch on Facebook.

“Husband and I were driving and seen the craziest thing in the sky. It looked like a star traveling with a cone of light behind it. Then we pulled over to take a pic and it puffed out and slowly just faded away. That was no plane…,” Joey Lynn Haas wrote on the A POSITIVE WARWICK Facebook page Saturday at 7:45 p.m.

Haas’ assessment was correct, as the Falcon 9 rocket operated by Space X, continued the deployment of SpaceX’s global broadband, network now accessible from all seven continents, according to Spaceflightnow.com. The launch was witnessed across the east coast, including areas in Rhode Island from Westerly to Hope Valley.

Haas reported seeing it from Warwick Avenue. Holly Fournier reported it from Arnold Road in Coventry. Anne Pinneo Blissmer saw it from Fairview Avenue in Coventry. Samantha Northup saw it from Hope Valley. Ed Cekala saw it in Westerly.

In Warwick, near the old Winslow Field on Hunt Avenue, Yervant Parnagian was setting up his telescope for a night of astrophotography, “When I looked to the South (luckily) and saw it rising over the tree line.” The astro-photograher caught it with his camera.

The launch added 52 Starlink satellites to the orbital Starlink broadband network, which this month became operational over all seven continents. The network’s satellites in low Earth orbit can deliver broadband internet supporting streaming, gaming, and video calls. According to a recent report on the network by CNET.com, Starlink currently boasts at least 2,000 of the satellites, each about the size of a table, according to skyandtelescope.org.

The launch is visible from the other end courtesy of NASA. Space X posted a more artistic photo of the launch in action.

[CREDIT: NASA] The Space X Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with its latest payload of Starlink broadband satellites. Many reported seeing the Starlink Launch visible across RI.
[CREDIT: NASA] The Space X Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with its latest payload of Starlink broadband satellites. Many reported seeing the Starlink Launch visible across RI.

 

 

 

Rob Borkowski
Author: Rob Borkowski

Rob has worked as reporter and editor for several publications, including The Kent County Daily Times and Coventry Courier, before working for Gatehouse in MA then moving home with Patch Media. Now he's publisher and editor of WarwickPost.com. Contact him at [email protected] with tips, press releases, advertising inquiries, and concerns.

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