Super fast satellite

[antgetkefyalew]

What are the super fast satellite looking things that I frequently see?

Did I imagined them or anyone else see them too? 

[Waddensky]

How fast is super fast? Most visible satellites are in LEO and roughly have the same speed.

[moriniboy]

Saw one the other day, considerably faster than the usual satellites. In fact I would say it was faster than a meteor.

[Paul M]

The thing is with orbital mechanics is that the greater a satellites orbital velocity the higher its orbit and the slower its angular velocity. So at the orbital distance of some 22,000 miles the satellite orbits at 1 revolution per day - the satellite appears stationary above the same place on Earth surface while actually travelling at 17,000 mph!

Anything much lower than LEO satellites (that orbit in about 90 mins) is likely unstable or decaying or still under rocket propulsion to orbit. So for an object to be super fast it's either on an interplanetary trajectory (i.e. not in Earth orbit), like a meteor, or it's not in orbit but flying in the atmosphere.

I've been caught out by drones a few times in recent years.

[Tiny Clanger]

1 hour ago, antgetkefyalew said:

What are the super fast satellite looking things that I frequently see?

Did I imagined them or anyone else see them too? 

Try using stellarium (other sky map programs may do the same, but it's the one I know) and setting it to show satellites . You can dial the time/date back, look in the relevant part of the sky, see if a moving dot appears where yours did, and if it did, freeze the time, click on the dot and find out what exactly it was.

[Spile]

Heavens Above is a good app for locating and tracking artificial satellites.

[Louis D]

On 25/03/2021 at 11:51, moriniboy said:

Saw one the other day, considerably faster than the usual satellites. In fact I would say it was faster than a meteor.

Perhaps a spent rocket stage?  A SpaceX rocket just reentered Earth's atmosphere last night above the US Pacific Northwest.

[wxsatuser]

The fastest satellites one might see would be those with an elliptical orbit.

A Molniya orbit would typically bring a speed of 10km/sec at perigee where as your average LEO is in the 6.5>8km/sec bracket.