If you saw a line of bright dots gliding together across the sky, it may have been a Qianfan train — a freshly launched batch of China's "Thousand Sails" (G60) satellites, the country's answer to Starlink. Like Starlink trains, they appear as a silent string of lights for the first days after a launch.
China launches a new batch of roughly 18 Qianfan satellites into polar orbit every few weeks, and deployment is accelerating toward a planned constellation of thousands. For the first days after each launch the satellites fly close together and low, catching sunlight during twilight — the window when a train is visible to the naked eye. This page detects the freshest batch and tells you, in plain language, when and where to look from your location.
🚂 CHECK FOR A TRAIN NOWQianfan (千帆, "Thousand Sails"), also known as the Spacesail Constellation or G60, is a Chinese low-Earth-orbit internet network being built as a direct rival to SpaceX's Starlink. It is operated by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology and plans to grow to well over ten thousand satellites. Launches began in 2024 and now run in batches of around 18 satellites every few weeks.
Just like a Starlink train, a freshly launched Qianfan batch flies in a tight line before the satellites spread out and climb to their operational orbit. During that early window they can appear as a "string of pearls" moving silently across the twilight sky — and, like Starlink trains, they are often mistaken for UFOs.
Honest answer: a fresh Qianfan train is a naked-eye object during twilight, but it is not as easy as the ISS. Qianfan's operational shell is high (around 1,160 km), so once the satellites raise their orbits they become faint. The genuinely spottable moment is the first days after launch, while the batch is still low and clustered. Best viewing is the same as any satellite: the 1–2 hours after sunset or before sunrise, when the sky is dark but the satellites are still lit by the Sun.
Because Qianfan launches into polar orbits, its passes reach high latitudes and sweep the whole planet — so it is well placed for observers far from the equator, including across Asia-Pacific and the Southern Hemisphere.
A silent, evenly-spaced line of dots moving together in one direction is almost always a satellite train — Starlink or Qianfan — not aircraft (which blink) or a meteor (which flares and vanishes in a second). If the line appeared shortly after a launch, a train is by far the most likely explanation.
Both look similar: a silent line of evenly-spaced dots moving together. Starlink launches far more often, so a random train is more likely Starlink — but if you're in Asia-Pacific or a fresh Qianfan batch has just launched, Qianfan is a real possibility. Both are harmless internet satellites, and both are frequently reported as UFOs.
Qianfan (Thousand Sails, also called G60 or the Spacesail Constellation) is a Chinese satellite-internet mega-constellation and a direct competitor to Starlink. It is run by Shanghai Spacecom Satellite Technology and is planned to reach well over ten thousand satellites, launched in batches of around 18 at a time.
In the days immediately after a launch, during twilight — roughly 30–90 minutes after sunset or before sunrise. That's when the batch is still low, tightly grouped and catching sunlight against a dark sky. After the satellites raise toward their high operational orbit they spread out and fade.
A fresh Qianfan train is visible to the naked eye but generally fainter than a fresh Starlink train, because Qianfan inserts and operates at a higher altitude. The train formation is still the striking part — a line of dots moving in unison. Dark skies away from city lights help a lot.
Roughly every two to three weeks in 2026, and accelerating. Because a train stays visible for only a few days after each launch, fresh Qianfan trains appear periodically rather than continuously — which is why this page fails closed and only shows a train when a genuinely fresh, clustered batch is in orbit.
No. They are ordinary commercial internet satellites. The train formation is temporary and harmless — it simply reflects sunlight for a few days before the satellites disperse into their operating orbits.