COUETRON-AU-PERCHE (47) 17.05.2025

Around midnight on the night of 16–17 May 2025, a woman stood in her garden in Couëtron-au-Perche (41), facing south and watching the sky without light pollution. The case title instead gives department 47. She saw a light she initially took for a satellite, moving smoothly west to east for about 30 seconds. It then appeared to turn 90° toward the southern horizon for another 10 seconds before fading over 2 seconds, as if leaving sunlight. The case is weakly substantiated because it has a single witness and imprecise position and time. It is probably an observation of 2 orbiting objects whose paths crossed (see investigation report). Substantiation means the amount of reliable, objectively established information collected for an account. The witness understood that an orbiting object's visibility results from reflected sunlight. Investigation suggests that the apparent right-angle turn combined 2 independent objects: - The first followed a typical west–east satellite path near overhead, at 75° elevation, fading as it left the area where its structure reflected the Sun toward the observer. - A second, also passing near overhead but north–south, entered that visible area. Its subsequent 2-second gradual fading fits entering Earth's shadow in turn. Many satellites, including Starlink objects, could explain the first path. A good candidate for the apparent turn is a Russian SL-8 R/B rocket stage which emerged from Earth's shadow at 23:57, at 72° elevation south-southwest, before disappearing again at 00:00 at 25° elevation south (investigation report, Figure 9). The observation time is not precise enough to identify the candidates more specifically. GEIPAN classifies the case B: probable observation of 2 orbiting objects.