An account in Haute-Garonne, France

On November 3, 2015 at 7:06 a.m., a motorist near Blajan (31) observed in the sky the passage from east to west of a phenomenon made up of several reddish luminous fragments. The phenomenon broke into two, then four or five pieces, and quickly went out above the Pyrenees. No particular sound was heard. This bolide (very fast luminous ball) observed for 15 to 20 seconds, during which it fragmented into 4 or 5 pieces, does have the characteristics of an atmospheric re-entry of large space debris. Many witnesses also saw it in Spain. Another motorist on the A64 highway near Montréjeau (31) also filled out the questionnaire to give an account. But this space debris does not appear in the list of cataloged objects published by the American service SpaceTrack. A remarkable investigation was carried out by Ted Molczan, who identified this large debris as the 3rd stage of the Centaur launcher used to launch an American military satellite in 2002: See his investigation: Re-entry Sightings and Debris Recovery of 2008-010B Spain-2015 November 03 UTC. Sphere-tanks survived the atmospheric re-entry and were found in Spain: see Three mysterious metallic balls from the sky crashed in Spain. This observation case is remarkable because it combines eyewitness observations and debris found on the ground. GEIPAN classifies these observations as perfectly identified: atmospheric re-entry of a Centaur stage.