Sighting in Frambouhans, July 17, 2022

In the night of 16 July 2022, at around 1:45 a.m., a witness was on a piece of open ground in a rural area, attending a music festival. For a few minutes they watched a white point of light, similar to a star, crossing the sky in a straight line at a steady speed. It first appeared in the northwest and went on toward the east or northeast. It covered roughly 90 to 100 degrees of sky, at an elevation between 45° and 60°, before disappearing from view. The witness had first thought of a satellite, but the way the point looked in their photographs struck them as odd.

The case was rated as having medium consistency: only one witness sent an account to the GEIPAN, along with two photographs supplied as copies, which were nonetheless considered usable.

The investigation concluded that the witness had seen the International Space Station (ISS). Its pointlike appearance, white color, straight path and travel from west-northwest to east matched the description. The starting and ending elevations were of the same order as those the witness gave. The time of 1:45 a.m. corresponded to the start of the ISS's visibility, with a slight offset from the elevation the witness mentioned, and an observation lasting a few minutes fits the ISS's total visibility of 6 minutes 35 seconds. Analysis of the images showed that the distortions and colors came from classic streaking and defocusing effects, well-known photographic artifacts. The GEIPAN classified the case as A.