Sighting in Rentree Atmospherique — National, September 1, 1987

Many witnesses spread across a wide area stretching from French Guiana to Martinique and Guadeloupe saw a very bright phenomenon cross the sky, usually followed by a trail. It passed silently. Their descriptions agreed on several points: how long it lasted, its shape, its apparent size and its movement.

These features match those of an atmospheric re-entry of space debris, a possibility already raised at the time by the American authorities and by the GEPAN, though neither could confirm it. The investigation established that a heavy rocket stage, Cosmos 1873 rocket, was re-entering the atmosphere then, and that its trajectory fits the testimonies gathered in the Antilles that day perfectly.

GEIPAN classified the case as A: the witnesses mistook this re-entry for an unknown phenomenon. Their visual perception was not at fault, only the interpretation they gave it, shaped by their impressions of seeing a rare event. For the witnesses at Le Lamentin, an error in dating the sighting was added to this.