VEYRIER (GENEVE.CH ) 26.03.2025

On 26 March 2025 between 20:15 and 20:20 local time, a witness walking home in Veyrier, canton of Geneva, Switzerland, saw an intensely bright white light. It remained uniformly white, much brighter than the stars, and moved rapidly in a straight line without apparent changes of speed or direction. The unobstructed outdoor naked-eye sighting lasted under 10 seconds. He submitted a detailed technical questionnaire to GEIPAN on 30 March. The questionnaire placed the start northwestward at an estimated elevation of 60°, and the end southeastward as the light disappeared above Mont Salève. Bossey weather station in Haute-Savoie, less than 5 km away, recorded about 11°C between 20:00 and 20:30, wind of 2–3 km/h from directions between southeast and northeast, and no precipitation. Meteociel satellite images confirmed generally clear skies above Veyrier, marked with a red dot on the map (Annex 1). Flightradar24 showed easyJet flight EJU78LF from Paris to Naples during the window, following the reported general direction. The source places it well to the west behind Mont Salève, at a minimum horizontal distance of approximately 15 km and altitude of 37,000 ft, approximately 11.3 km. That gave an elevation of about 37°, well below the witness's estimated 60° (Annex 2). An orbital analysis supplied to CNES by COSE showed the International Space Station passing between 19:16 and 19:20 UTC with compatible geometry. Its path ran northwest to southeast, from azimuth 296° to 140°, with elevation ranging from 10° to a maximum of 86° (Annex 3). COSE is the Centre Opérationnel de Surveillance de l'Espace, the space-surveillance operations centre. GEIPAN judged the evidential support moderate: the questionnaire was precise, but there was only 1 witness and no photograph or video. The brightness, rapid steady movement, direction and timing matched the ISS. It classified the case A: International Space Station.