Watch SpaceX Starlink train circle Earth in amazing satellite video

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A video captured by a newly launched SpaceX Starlink satellite shows us what it's like to zoom above our beautiful blue planet.

The 3.5-minute-long video was posted on X on Monday (May 4) by Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX. It features footage from one of the 29 satellites that launched to orbit on May 1 atop a Falcon 9 rocket from Florida's Space Coast.

"Watch as the Starlink sats cruise over an entire orbit, through sunrise and sunset, and slowly separate from each [other] as they complete their post-launch deployment sequence before beginning orbit raise," Nicolls wrote in the post.

"The satellites are stacked like a deck of cards in the rocket, which slowly spins when dispensing to impart a small velocity difference, ensuring deconfliction. May the @Starlink be with you," he added.

That last sentence was likely a nod to the fact that he posted the video on Star Wars Day (May 4, from "May the Force be with you").

SpaceX has shown us Starlink satellites in orbit before, but those views have generally been pre-deployment, focused on spacecraft still stacked on their Falcon 9 rocket's upper stage.

This video is something new, especially because it shows multiple members of the 29-satellite train and tracks a substantial part of their initial journey around Earth.

That said, lots of Starlink satellites have gotten this view to date. The Starlink megaconstellation — by far the biggest spacecraft network ever assembled — currently consists of more than 10,300 satellites.

And it's growing all the time. SpaceX has launched 53 Falcon 9 missions so far in 2026, and 43 of them have been Starlink flights.

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Michael Wall is the Spaceflight and Tech Editor for Space.com and joined the team in 2010. He primarily covers human and robotic spaceflight, military space, and exoplanets, but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018. Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.