An account in Gironde, France

On December 15, 2017 at 6:33 PM, two witnesses were intrigued by the movement of three very bright points in the sky. The three points were perfectly aligned and were moving from West to East. The observation lasted 30 seconds. The two witnesses observed three objects on the same orbit, namely the Dragon supply vessel of the International Space Station (ISS), accompanied by the two protective elements of its solar generators. The launch of this mission (CRS 13) took place from Florida at 4:36 PM (local time in France) and the observation took place about two hours later, which explains that the three objects were still very close together. These three objects are listed by the US Space Command under numbers 43060 to 43062 (international designation 2017-080 A to C). Images including these same three objects plus the upper stage of the launcher had moreover been published on the Web during the launch of mission CRS 11 (see the video Dragon resupply Mission CRS 11). In the present case, since the upper stage had already performed its re-entry burn, only three objects remained visible. GEIPAN classifies the case as A: elements of the Dragon supply vessel of the International Space Station (ISS).