Sighting in Draguignan, August 22, 2012

At 22:18, a whole family was looking at the starry sky when they noticed a large luminous ball moving slowly and silently. Its brightness gradually faded until it disappeared. The witnesses were intrigued by what they saw.

The investigation compared their description with Calsky data on the passage of the International Space Station (ISS), and it matched in every respect what is seen during such a pass. The Calsky sky chart shows the station's successive positions against the stars, with larger dots where the station appears brighter. At the start of the pass, its apparent motion is slow. It then moves toward the east and enters the Earth's shadow, so the Sun no longer lights it and observers can no longer see it. GEIPAN therefore classed the case as A: it was the ISS passing overhead.