JULOS (65) 09.01.2025

At 06:45, the sole witness was preparing to leave for work when, from his doorstep in Julos (65), he saw a large red-orange ball leaving a thin smoke trail. It moved straight northwest to southeast, passing directly overhead. Using a ruler held at arm’s length, he estimated its apparent size as 2 cm. After about 30 seconds, landscape features blocked his view. He later consulted “Méprise du ciel,” recommended by GEIPAN, and considered atmospheric re-entry but quickly rejected it, saying, “There has never been a trail like the one I observed this time.” The case has moderate evidential substance*: one witness with no photograph or video. Its principal strangeness was the trail. GEIPAN identifies it as a Starlink satellite re-entry. The IMO Fireball site, which records natural and artificial atmospheric-entry reports, logged nine accounts at the same time from southern France and the Pyrenean foothills (see IMO event). They likewise describe a mainly red-orange object moving straight, with duration estimates of 7.5–45 seconds, encompassing this witness’s 30 seconds. Reported directions vary, but two Basque-coast observers give northwest to southeast, matching this account. The IMO trajectory, shown by the blue arrow in Appendix 1, agrees within a few degrees. GEIPAN considers the duration more suggestive of an artificial object, such as a satellite, debris or rocket stage, than a natural fireball. IMO data support this by attributing the event to Starlink 5144. GEIPAN classifies the case A: atmospheric re-entry of a Starlink satellite. *GEIPAN defines evidential substance as the amount of information collected for an account that is considered reliable and objectively substantiated.