CHALLANS (85) 08.08.2012

On 8 August 2012 at 23:10, a witness in Challans (85) watched 2 very bright objects apparently traveling parallel from south to north at very high altitude for 1 minute. The account was very brief, and no other report was received. Calsky predictions show several satellite passages at 23:10. The ISS was exceptionally bright at magnitude −4.3, with the Russian Progress and Japanese HTV-3 cargo spacecraft docked to it, traveling southwest to northeast. Two much fainter objects, IGS5 H2A Rocket and Alos, with magnitudes 2.7 and 3, traveled south to north at about the same time, one following the other about 80° apart. GEIPAN reasons that the spectacular ISS passage would have been hard to miss, but its direction differed from the reported south–north path, and it would provide only 1 very bright point. Conversely, the other 2 satellites fit that direction but were not very bright. Because of these uncertainties and the imprecise account, GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable satellites, without being able to determine which.