Two non-blinking lights with a distance between them the same as the length of the big dipper.

I saw what I thought was the international space station but it was slightly less bright. I've seen the ISS many times. Then I noticed another dimmer light in front of it that appeared to be leading it. I thought it was star link but there were only 2 lights with nothing visible in between them. The lights were as far apart as the big dipper is long. I checked the ISS flyover times and none were scheduled at that time. I have seen other satellites before but never one following another. They never blinked and they were traveling from north to south. I also saw this same event 5-8 weeks before this but I don't remember the date. I do know I saw that at 5:40 AM when I saw it and it was traveling from northwest to southeast. During both these events it was dark and the stars were bright.