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Sighting in Rioux, August 9, 2012

Charente-Maritime, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France

Sighting on August 9, 2012 in Rioux (Charente-Maritime, France). GEIPAN identified the phenomenon with certainty: it was the International Space Station (ISS) (class A).

What happened

A witness was intrigued by a very bright phenomenon moving slowly across the sky. They watched it on two consecutive evenings, 8 and 9 August 2012, each time at around 10:30 pm and again at around 11:30 pm.

Investigators compared the witness's description and these times with the Calsky records of passes of the International Space Station (ISS). On 8 August it passed from 9:31 to 9:40 pm, then from 11:06 to 11:15 pm. On 9 August it passed from 10:13 to 10:24 pm, then from 11:50 to 11:57 pm. The description and the times fit these passes very well.

GEIPAN therefore classified the case as A: on two evenings in a row, the witness had seen the two successive passes of the ISS.

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 9, 2012
Location
Rioux · town centre
Type of sighting
From the ground
Source classification
A
Explanation
Space station (ISS)

Sources

Summary written by SkyUnknown from the facts published by the source.