Astro Enthusiasts have convicted SpaceX of publishing an unreliable image. It demonstrates a batch of Starlink satellites above the Earth.
The image was attached to a message on the social network X, in which the company announced its intention to prematurely de-orbit one hundred Starlink satellites of one of the early generations. Engineers have identified a problem that can lead to a malfunction that will make it impossible to control the devices. To avoid the risk of clogging the near-Earth orbit, the company decided to terminate their operation ahead of time.
However, it was not the news itself that attracted the attention of many users, but an image of the deployment of Starlink satellites that illustrated it. It looked too “high-quality” compared to the usual images of such broadcasts.
As a result, astro enthusiasts conducted a small investigation, during which they quickly established that this was a composite image made up of two different photos. The first one was made in a SpaceX clean room. It showed a batch of Starlink satellites ready for launch.
The second image was received on December 12, 2021, from the ISS. Its author is German astronaut Matthias Maurer. He photographed Southeast Asia through the porthole of the station.
One of the SpaceX employees took it and replaced the Soyuz spacecraft in the frame with a Starlink. Why the company had to go to such a forgery when it has real photos of the Starlink deployment remains unclear.
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