AnomalyOn October 20, 2011 at around 9:10 PM, an amateur astronomer observes the slow West-East movement of a luminous point. Of low strangeness and good consistency, this observation case relates a particularly bright luminous point, moving from West to East, rising toward the celestial vault and disappearing in a few seconds. This corresponds exactly to the appearance of the ISS disappearing into the Earth's shadow. A slight discrepancy is noted between the disappearance time (9:03 PM) provided by the simulator and the observation time (9:10 PM), and a maximum elevation lower than the witness's reading (50° versus 60/70°): ISS orbit bulletins change notably from one day to the next during that period, probably due to maneuvers; it is very difficult to have a very precise orbit bulletin in these situations. This case is classified B: probable observation of the International Space Station ISS.
Essonne, France · 2011-10-20 · from the GEIPAN archive
An account in Essonne, France
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This is an official case file of GEIPAN, the French space agency's unidentified aerospace phenomena office, machine translated from French. The original text and the full investigation file are at geipan.fr. We reproduce it with thanks and remove anything on request.