Sighting in Grasse, August 29, 2012
Alpes-Maritimes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France
Sighting on August 29, 2012 in Grasse (Alpes-Maritimes, France). According to GEIPAN, it was most probably the International Space Station (ISS) (class B).
What happened
A witness was looking at the sky at around 6 a.m., paying particular attention to the constellation Orion. They saw a bright light cross the upper part of the constellation for about five seconds. It then kept going in a straight line and gradually faded away toward the north-east.
The investigation compared the sighting with satellite passes, using a Calsky report. At that time, the Chinese space station Tiangong 1 was crossing the sky from west to east. It was very bright and passed slightly above Orion, as the sky map shows. The witness had described a path running from south-west to north-east. GEIPAN classified the case as B: the object was probably the Tiangong 1 station.
Account rewritten by SkyUnknown from the investigation report published by GEIPAN (CNES). The original text and case documents are on the official record.
- Date
- August 29, 2012
- Location
- Grasse · town centre
- Type of sighting
- From the ground
- Source classification
- B
- Explanation
- Space station (ISS)
Sources
- See the original document
GEIPAN (CNES)
n° 2012-08-08309
Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.