Stargazers in the UK have reported seeing trains of bright lights shooting across the sky in recent days, as Elon Musk's Starlink satellite network grows.

One Britonsaid he had seen as many as 60 of the satellites shooting over the UK yesterday evening. "It's getting like Star Wars up there," he wrote on Twitter.

Another commented that there were "weird and mysterious UFO-like lights spotted in the Somerset sky".

Similar sightingsare likely in the days and weeks ahead, experts claim. You can see the best time to spot a satellite passing here.

Mr Musk's SpaceX business has been launching the satellites in batches of 60 since last May, with a total of 300 having been fired into the sky so far. However, the numbers are expected to ramp up rapidly.

The company has US approval to launch12,000 satellites, and is hoping to do so by the mid-2020s. Last year, it filed paperwork to launch an extra30,000 Starlink satellites.

The plan is ultimately to create an orbiting network which can provide global internet coverage.

It is an expensive process, and sightings of the Starlink satellites in the UK comes just days after rival satellite company OneWeb filed for bankruptcy and laid off most of its staff.

It said talks for a new funding round with its bigger backer SoftBank had broken down"because of the financial impact and market turbulence related to the spread of Covid-19".

OneWeb had launched around 70 satellites into orbit and had been planning to grow its network to around 640, but experts had suggested this would take a lot more cash to implement than the 2.6bn OneWeb had already raised.

BossAdrian Steckel had said it was a "difficult day for us at OneWeb".

"So many people have dedicated so much energy, effort, and passion to this company and our mission.

"Our hope is that this process will allow us to carve a path forward that leads to the completion of our mission, building on the years of effort and the billions of invested capital."

Excerpt from:

Elon Musks Starlink satellites light up skies over the UK - Telegraph.co.uk