Sighting in Barbaste, August 8, 2013

The witness was at a holiday camp, doing some stargazing with a friend. At around 10:30 pm, they noticed two flashing points of light moving across the sky in a straight line. Their report was very detailed and clearly suggested satellites.

Investigators checked the Calsky website, which pointed to two possibilities. The first was the ISS, passing at 10:27 pm. However, the station is much brighter than the stars, which makes it hard to account for two points of light. It also passed south of the Pole Star, whereas the witness had placed the objects in the north. The second was a pass of two military satellites, NOSS 2-1B and 1C, at 10:37 pm. They are fainter, but can reflect sunlight unevenly and produce the effect the witness described. Their path matched the observation very well.

GEIPAN adopted this second explanation, despite a 7-minute gap from the time given in the testimony. The case was classified B: probably the passage of two military satellites.