Sighting in Malrevers, May 26, 2021

Around 11:00 pm, the main witness was visiting a friend. Together they watched five light sources accompanied by two halos in the night sky. The whole thing moved silently along a straight path from northwest to southeast. After roughly thirty seconds, the glare of the full Moon made it impossible to make out, and it vanished toward the southeast.

Only the main witness sent a questionnaire to the GEIPAN, and there are no photos or videos, so the case has medium consistency even though there were two witnesses.

The investigation showed that this was the effect of the ignition of the last stage of a Falcon 9 rocket, carried out to deorbit it after the launch of Starlink batch no. 28. The description (halos, a bright point of light, an elongated shape that may correspond to the Starlink satellites not yet dispersed) resembles observations made on 4 May 2021, which were explained by the same type of event. On the evening in question, a gas cloud produced by this ignition passed over southwestern France around 10:55 pm and was filmed by witnesses in France and Spain. Its appearance fits the description perfectly, and the rocket stage's trajectory is consistent with the one observed. The case is classified A. It is very similar to another GEIPAN case that took place the same day at the same time, in Noé (31).