Sighting in Sète, July 27, 2007

The witness was sitting on a café terrace, sometime between about 11:30 pm and 12:15 am, when they noticed a bright point of light crossing the sky quickly at very high altitude. It was in the south and following a descending path. The witness was chatting with a friend, looked away, and then resumed watching. By then the object was in the opposite direction and climbing.

A check of the sky chart showed that around midnight the International Space Station was disappearing at the horizon a few seconds before the NOAA 14 weather satellite appeared at exactly the same spot, in the direction of the sighting. The two paths crossed at roughly 90°. The ISS had risen at 11:45 pm in the south-southwest (204°) and was heading southeast. NOAA 14 rose at the same point (204°) at 12:03 am and travelled the opposite way, toward the southwest.

GEIPAN concluded that the witness had seen the ISS and then NOAA 14 in succession, which gave the impression of a single light changing direction. The case is classified A: two satellites observed one after the other.