MOREY (71) 04.08.2024

On 4 August 2024 at about 23:00, witnesses on their terrace in Morey, Saône-et-Loire, saw what they described as an enormous luminous bar made of white bulbs. It moved silently along a curved path from northwest to northeast through Ursa Major, at approximately 45° elevation. Using a ruler at arm's length, they estimated its apparent length as 30–40 cm. It disappeared after 1–1.5 minutes. A video attempt confirmed the observation time but was not usable for detailed analysis. The source later describes the video as partly usable. GEIPAN judged the evidential support good, with 2 matching accounts and the video (see the investigation report). It defines evidential support as the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively established. The investigation identified the Starlink group 11.1 train launched by SpaceX from Vandenberg, USA, at 07:32 UTC that morning. The source describes 23 satellites in a line, visible shortly after release from the launcher's fairing and before dispersal into their target orbits, illuminated by the Sun after sunset on the ground. GEIPAN cited the bright white point-like lights aligned in a train a few hours after launch; the confirmed morning launch; a curved path it attributes to Earth's curvature; the northwest start, passage through Ursa Major and northeast end; and disappearance into Earth's shadow. Other people in France and Switzerland photographed and filmed the same passage through Ursa Major. The source clarifies that 'imaged' here means recorded in photographs or video. GEIPAN considered the confirmed satellite passage to explain the perceived strangeness and classified the case A: Starlink group 11.1 satellite train.