Sighting in Falcon 9 — National, May 4, 2021

GEIPAN received a very large number of reports about a luminous phenomenon seen around 10:55 p.m. in a clear sky. The witnesses were spread across several departments and regions of France. They described a halo, a cloud, a bar, or one or several white or yellow points of light moving silently from the northwest to the southeast.

The case was first handled in June 2021 and classified B, because a mistaken identification with an event involving the Falcon 9 launcher, during the 25th Starlink satellite launch, was highly likely. Similar sightings followed in the months afterward. They led to further investigations carried out with launcher specialists and the CNES Space Surveillance Operational Service.

The investigation accounted for each description. The glowing ball or halo was a bubble of gas formed by gases vented for a few seconds at most. The sun had just set for the observers, so the bubble, still lit by it, stood out against a black background. The "butterfly" was the symmetrical venting of gases, possibly including propellants in gaseous form, from the tanks. The bright point at its center was the area where these gases had not yet dispersed. The succession of points was the Starlink satellites, still grouped together. The case is therefore classified A: the witnesses saw the restart of the Falcon 9 second stage and the train of Starlink satellites from the same launch.