Debunks / satellites-drones

The moving dots in the sky are drones, not satellites

Flat-earth claim
The moving dots in the sky are drones, not satellites
iss056e130490 (2018) - BIRDS-2 satellite deployment from the ISS. NASA.

The claim

"The steady dots moving across the sky are a fleet of drones, not satellites."

The reality

GPS alone has 31 operational satellites at ~20,200 km altitude, each completing an orbit every 11 hours 58 minutes - and your phone solves for its position from their signals every second. Their positions are predicted by orbital mechanics, and their atomic clocks need a net relativistic correction of +38 microseconds per day; without it, GPS positions would drift by more than 10 km per day. A drone fleet cannot do any of that, and no one else on Earth could track a 'drone fleet' that precisely either.

The evidence

GPS constellation: 31 operational satellites, ~20,180 km altitude, 11h58m period, 6 orbital planes. Relativity: satellite clocks run 38 microseconds fast per day (special + general relativity), corrected in the system design. 38e-6 s x speed of light ~= 11.4 km of range error per day if uncorrected. Your phone's GPS working to metres is the daily proof.

Sources

  1. GPS - constellation, orbit, relativistic corrections [1]
  2. Image - NASA Image Library (iss056e130490) [2]