Opinion: Elon Musk's Starlink connects the planet. It also clutters the heavens

People watch the launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying 21 second-generation Starlink satellites from Space Launch Complex 40 at Nasa's Kennedy Space Center, in Cocoa Beach, Florida, on February 27. — AFP

Gaze up at the right time and you might see what looks like a train of stars streaking across a dark sky.

The phenomenon is neither aliens nor a top-secret military project. The lights are commercial satellites that provide broadband Internet service. They are part of growing constellations of such craft in low Earth orbit — within 1,200 miles from Earth.