<p>Yes, that sounds very much like a satellite.  It may have been the <a href="https://www.heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=51.2069&amp;lng=-0.1318&amp;loc=Unnamed&amp;alt=0&amp;tz=GMT&amp;satid=23088&amp;mjd=59632.7971713009" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Cosmos 2278 rocket</a>, a rocket that was used to launch a military (spy) satellite by Russia in 1994.</p>
<p>Satellites and particularly discarded rocket parts are very common in low Earth orbit.  On any typical night, you can see tens of satellites over the skies of England (and nearly everywhere else)</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-22T21:56:16.770Z
2022-02-22T21:56:16.770Z
James K
<p>Stellarium is showing <a href="https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=19791" rel="nofollow noreferrer">SL-14 R/B</a> rocket body passing Pollux around 19:22 hrs but it is heading east and doesn't approach Castor.  Also, at 19:33 <a href="http://www.satobs.org/noss.html#NOSS3" rel="nofollow noreferrer">NOSS 3-3 r</a>, the Centaur upper stage for the NOSS 3-3 pair of satellites, passed north to south parallel to the line of Castor and Pollux but to the west.  I'm not sure how up-to-date my version of Stellarium is, there could be more recent candidates that it isn't showing.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-23T16:53:36.673Z
2022-02-23T16:53:36.673Z
Dave Gremlin
<p>In the UK (south east) - when outside this evening at about 19:10 UTC (22nd Feb 2022), looking due south, with Orion directly above me.</p>
<p>There are two bright stars vertical to each other, just to the left and above the &quot;shoulder&quot; of Orion, from looking in a book I believe they are Castor (top) and Pollux (bottom).</p>
<p>I noticed a moving light approaching the top star - very small and faint, no flashing lights so not likely to be a plane. In the space of under a minute, it travelled between the two stars and kept travelling south (then got hidden behind some roofs of other houses).</p>
<p>Is this likely to have been a satellite, or possibly the International Space Station? It's the first time I've noticed anything like this. It appeared to be moving quickly, and didn't leave a trail, so I don't think it was a shooting star/meteorite.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2022-02-26T02:27:14.077Z
@fasterthanlight since there is a specific time and location I think it's better to not close this as duplicate of such a generic Q&A, and in this case the OP has accepted a specific answer, so in this case even less reason to close as duplicate. **voting to leave open**
uhoh
<artificial-satellite><orion>
Did I see a satellite (or space station)?
Brian
# Did I see a satellite (or space station)?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2022-02-22)

In the UK (south east) - when outside this evening at about 19:10 UTC (22nd Feb 2022), looking due south, with Orion directly above me.

There are two bright stars vertical to each other, just to the left and above the "shoulder" of Orion, from looking in a book I believe they are Castor (top) and Pollux (bottom).

I noticed a moving light approaching the top star - very small and faint, no flashing lights so not likely to be a plane. In the space of under a minute, it travelled between the two stars and kept travelling south (then got hidden behind some roofs of other houses).

Is this likely to have been a satellite, or possibly the International Space Station? It's the first time I've noticed anything like this. It appeared to be moving quickly, and didn't leave a trail, so I don't think it was a shooting star/meteorite.

**Tags:** artificial-satellite, orion

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: @fasterthanlight since there is a specific time and location I think it's better to not close this as duplicate of such a generic Q&A, and in this case the OP has accepted a specific answer, so in this case even less reason to close as duplicate. **voting to leave open**  

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## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2022-02-22. Score: 1 | Accepted answer

Yes, that sounds very much like a satellite. It may have been the [Cosmos 2278 rocket](https://www.heavens-above.com/passdetails.aspx?lat=51.2069&lng=-0.1318&loc=Unnamed&alt=0&tz=GMT&satid=23088&mjd=59632.7971713009), a rocket that was used to launch a military (spy) satellite by Russia in 1994.

Satellites and particularly discarded rocket parts are very common in low Earth orbit. On any typical night, you can see tens of satellites over the skies of England (and nearly everywhere else)


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### Answer by username_3 on 2022-02-23. Score: 1

Stellarium is showing [SL-14 R/B](https://www.n2yo.com/satellite/?s=19791) rocket body passing Pollux around 19:22 hrs but it is heading east and doesn't approach Castor. Also, at 19:33 [NOSS 3-3 r](http://www.satobs.org/noss.html#NOSS3), the Centaur upper stage for the NOSS 3-3 pair of satellites, passed north to south parallel to the line of Castor and Pollux but to the west. I'm not sure how up-to-date my version of Stellarium is, there could be more recent candidates that it isn't showing.


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