An account in Polynésie française, France

Thanks to new technical means (software) and the investigation experience acquired over all these recent years, this re-examination sometimes leads to new remarks or even a change in classification. This observation case, previously classified D and named NUKU HIVA (987) 1988, is part of a set of cases recently re-examined. On October 22, 1988, around 3:30 AM, several witnesses in French Polynesia observed the passage of very bright balls, white or red-orange in color depending on the testimonies. This luminous phenomenon had a straight-line trajectory in the sky, and no particular noise was heard. Four testimonies were collected late. The gendarmerie investigation also notes that that night, two crews from the New Zealand and UTA companies reported observations of phenomena, including long condensation trails off the Marquesas Islands. Several luminous balls advancing together in the sky with trails, glows of different intensities, ogival shapes for some: all these elements are characteristic of the atmospheric re-entry of a meteoroid with fragmentation or of a space vehicle. The "vehicle" hypothesis wins out because it was observed over a fairly long time (> 1 minute) and the angular displacement in the sky was not very fast. At the time, GEIPAN had less experience with testimonies of this type, and access to information to find the vehicle at the origin was more difficult. Today it is possible to identify in the NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) directories a list of objects or vehicles that made a re-entry that day (there are several) and, thanks to the final orbits given by NORAD and plotting tools, to find the one passing under geometric conditions consistent with the observation and therefore at the origin of the observation. As indicated in the attached reconstruction, around 1:45 PM UT on October 22, i.e., 4:15 AM local time (the witnesses are imprecise; they testify between 2 and 5 weeks after the observation and indicate around 4 AM), space object no. 19597, the upper stage of the rocket used to launch the Raduga 22 satellite, passes near the observation location under geometric conditions consistent with those observed, that is, from NW to SE, as described by T3 and T4, the two witnesses best placed (closest) to understand the trajectory. Given its location, one can understand that T2 mainly perceived only the W to E component of the trajectory. On the other hand, the trajectory corresponding to T1's observation does not match at all (plotting error in the official report?). Given the other testimonies, and also the indications (see official report) from crews of two airliners that described the same phenomenon flying close over Nuku-Hiva (with an indication of direction W to E for the one that mentions it), we consider that T1's testimony cannot be used against the hypothesis. Consequently, GEIPAN classifies the case as A: atmospheric re-entry of a rocket upper stage.