A string of about 30 lights travelling in unison have been seen high in the sky from Warkworth to Dargaville to Great Barrier Island this evening. Video / Tina Comrie / Lani Fairbairn / Supplied
Satellites likely belonging to Elon Musk's SpaceX Starlink venture have been seen by night owl Northlanders tonight.
The NZ Herald received images and video from residents in Dargaville and Warkworth tonight, showing an ordered line of bright lights in the night's sky.
Earlier today, Space.com reported the launch of SpaceX's first Falcon 9 rocket of the year sending a new stack of Starlink satellites into orbit from Florida in the United States.
An image seemingly of Starlink satellites above Warkworth tonight. Photo / Supplied
SpaceX confirmed the successful deployment of 49 Starlink satellites via Twitter about 1 hour, 20 minutes after liftoff at 10.49am (NZT).
Starlink has launched several chains of up to 60 satellites in recent years, offering broadband from above via the network of low-Earth orbiting satellites.
In May last year, the Herald reported a "mysterious string of lights" spotted in the sky above Auckland which later turned out to be Musk's satellites.
The line of lights seen above Dargaville on Northland's west coast. Photo / Supplied
Simon Russell was half-awake and letting in his cats around 5am on May 16 when he noticed some strange lights in the eastern sky.
He described seeing "40 or 50 lights in a continual trail trickling over the horizon" just above the rooftop of his Albany neighbour's rooftop for a number of minutes.
"It was 5am, I was half-awake and I was thinking, What am I looking at? It was quite freaky," Russell told the Herald.
"It just looked too uniform to be something alien ... it looked like a satellite formation but then I've never heard of a string of 40 or 50 satellites all in a row."
Launch of a Starlink Mission on a SpaceX rocket in September, 2020. Photo / SpaceX
He woke up his wife and son because he "needed witnesses, otherwise they would never have believed me".
Leaning on the fence, he used his cellphone to capture an image of the light show.
They have been spotted with the naked eye travelling over New Zealand previously, including sightings in March.
