SETE (34) 27.07.2007

On the night of 27 July 2007 between 23:30 and 00:15, a woman at a café terrace in Sète (34) saw a point of light moving rapidly at apparently very high altitude. It lay to the south and followed a descending path. After talking with her female friend, she looked again and found what she thought was the same object in the opposite direction, now ascending. The sky-chart analysis says the ISS disappeared at the horizon near midnight a few seconds before NOAA 14 rose at the same location in the viewing direction. It further states that their paths were about 90° apart: the ISS rose south-southwest at azimuth 204° at 23:45 and headed southeast, while NOAA 14 rose at the same 204° azimuth at 00:03 and headed southwest. These descriptions of the common location are retained as given. GEIPAN concludes that the witness saw the ISS and then NOAA 14, creating an impression of one light changing direction. The French summary calls the satellite observations simultaneous, whereas the narrative explicitly describes them as successive.