Sighting in Chaveroche, July 27, 2012

Between 4:20 and 4:25 in the morning, a witness noticed a milky-white, oval-shaped light crossing the sky in silence. After about 45 seconds, a second, orange-colored light appeared and followed exactly the same path as the first, "to perfection" in the witness's words. Both lights moved in a straight line at a steady speed, keeping the same gap between them. They eventually vanished behind the landscape. The witness described the object as being as big as the Moon.

The investigation established that the witness had seen the ISS, at magnitude -3 like Venus, followed by the Japanese HTV space cargo vehicle, at magnitude 3. The cargo vehicle was a few hours from docking with the International Space Station, on the same orbit and a few degrees away from it. This was checked against a Calsky report and the Canadian Space Agency's web page. The case is classified A: it was a very rare pass of the ISS together with the HTV. GEIPAN notes that the size and duration the witness perceived reflect a misjudgment, which is common with startling phenomena.