Spacecrafts, Aerial Technologies, and Unidentified Flying Objects: Potential Confusion in Investigations?
### UFO Sightings: A History of Misidentifications and the Role of Space Technology
In the realm of unexplained aerial phenomena, a pattern emerges where many reported UFOs are later revealed to be everyday aerospace occurrences, such as satellites, aircraft, or atmospheric conditions. This trend is evident in the long history of UFO sightings, dating back to the 1940s and continuing to the present day, with the advent of new technologies like the International Space Station (ISS) and SpaceX's Starlink satellites.
The popular UFO era began in 1947 with Kenneth Arnold's sighting of unidentified flying objects near Mount Rainier, Washington. Early investigations, such as Project Blue Book in the 1950s and 1960s, documented numerous sightings but concluded that most had mundane explanations, often involving misidentifications of natural or man-made objects.
One of the most famous incidents was the Roswell incident in 1947, initially reported as a "flying disc," which was later explained by the U.S. military as debris from a secret Project Mogul balloon designed to detect nuclear tests. Despite this explanation, conspiracy theories persist.
During the Gemini 4 mission in 1965, astronaut James McDivitt saw an unidentified object in orbit, which some speculate could have been another spacecraft or space debris. NASA documentation confirms that many orbital sightings are actually satellites, spent rocket stages, or even ice particles generated by spacecraft.
In more recent years, many UFO reports have turned out to be sightings of the ISS or Starlink satellites. The ISS is visible from Earth as a bright, fast-moving object crossing the night sky, while Starlink satellites often appear as "trains" of lights moving in formation, which can confuse observers not familiar with these technologies.
These satellite sightings often generate UFO reports because they move in predictable but unfamiliar ways, are very bright, and sometimes produce unusual visual effects due to sunlight reflecting off solar panels or satellite bodies. For example, a 2025 article citing NUFORC (National UFO Reporting Center), which has catalogued thousands of sightings since 1974, notes that many reports speculate plausible explanations like drones, aircraft, fireworks, and the International Space Station among potential identifications.
The increased deployment of Starlink satellites by SpaceX since 2019 has led to a surge in these "train-like" sightings, often initially reported as UFOs due to their unusual synchronized formations and brightness. According to recent data, UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) sightings remain high, with hundreds of sightings yearly globally, many in 2025 linked or attributed to known satellites.
While official investigations did not focus explicitly on satellites, modern UFO tracking entities increasingly recognise and document that a significant portion of UFO sightings are caused by satellite flyovers or ISS passes. This phenomenon reflects a long-standing pattern of aerial phenomena being misinterpreted as extraterrestrial or unknown craft without an understanding of space-based technology.
However, separating real sightings of the unexplained from sightings of the mundane is becoming increasingly difficult as new technologies develop. The capabilities of drones in aerial image projection could lead to seeing strange things in the future, further muddying the waters of UFO investigation.
The first 60 satellites of the Starlink constellation were launched on May 24, 2019, and the Starlink satellite train, while known, is still an incredible sight. Another witness in Colorado reported seeing "around 20 small dots of light, in a perfect line and evenly spaced" on January 14, 2020. A witness in Illinois reported seeing "lights like stars moving in a straight line at a steady pace and evenly spaced apart" on January 15, 2020. Some UFO reports submitted to the National UFO Reporting Center have been marked as potentially involving the Starlink train.
Footballer Simon Church shared a video of a glowing spherical object in the night sky on March 24, 2020. Initially, he thought the object was not a drone and too high to be one. Simon Church later concluded that the object was the International Space Station. The existence of the ISS does not mean that every glowing orb in the night sky should be dismissed. The increasing number and complexity of technologies in the sky are making it harder to distinguish real UFO sightings from ordinary phenomena.
- In the present day, with the advent of new space technologies like the International Space Station (ISS) and SpaceX's Starlink satellites, many UFO reports are often found to be sightings of these space-based technologies, mistaken for extraterrestrial or unknown craft.
- The misinterpretation of space technologies, such as satellites and the ISS, as UFOs is a long-standing pattern, as illustrated by the numerous UFO sightings throughout history that later turned out to be mundane occurrences in the realm of space-and-astronomy.
