DEBRIS ETAGE CENTAUR — HAUTE-GARONNE (31) 03.11.2015

On 3 November 2015 at 07:06, a motorist near Blajan (31) saw reddish luminous fragments cross west to east. The phenomenon split into 2 and then 4 or 5 pieces before quickly going out over the Pyrenees. No particular sound was heard. This fireball, a very fast luminous ball observed for 15–20 seconds, had the characteristics of large space debris reentering the atmosphere. Many people also saw it in Spain. Another motorist on the A64 near Montréjeau (31) completed a questionnaire. The debris did not appear in the US SpaceTrack service's published object list. Ted Molczan's investigation identified it, according to this source, as the third stage of a Centaur launcher used to launch a US military satellite in 2002. The source refers to his report “Re-entry Sightings and Debris Recovery of 2008-010B Spain-2015 November 03 UTC,” retaining the 2008 designation alongside the stated 2002 launch year. Spherical tanks survived reentry and were found in Spain; the source refers to an article titled “Three mysterious metal balls from the sky crashed in Spain.” This case is notable for combining eyewitness observations with recovered debris. GEIPAN regards the observations as fully identified: atmospheric reentry of a Centaur stage.