Turkish man mistakes Starlink satellites for alien invasion, calls police for help

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In Turkey’s northern Çorum province, a person who saw American spacecraft manufacturer and satellite communications company SpaceX's Starlink satellites in the sky at night hours on Sept. 25 asked for help from the police, fearing an alien invasion was taking place. 

The young person who made the report showed the images he took to the police and said that he had made a report in case of an attack. Police teams, on the other hand, informed that the luminous objects in the sky were satellites.

After the police left the scene, they described the incident over the radio. The head of the public security department could not believe what he heard and responded, "Did the person ask for help because he saw satellites in the sky?"

Starlink provides low orbit satellite service and has more than 5,000 small satellites in low Earth orbit. 

As of now, the Starlink satellite internet service is not operational in Turkey. SpaceX is awaiting approval from the Turkish government to initiate its services in the country.

In February 2023, the company’s CEO Elon Musk offered to provide Starlink services to Turkey following an earthquake. However, the Turkish government declined the offer, stating that it possessed adequate satellite capacity to assist the earthquake-affected regions.

During Musk’s meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in September, Musk once again stated their urge to operate in Turkey. 

Nonetheless, Turkish authorities are hesitant about Starlink which might be harder to regulate than the conventional internet providers which under heavy state control particularly during political upheavals. 

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