GEIPAN Case 2012-07-08299 — MONTCHABOUD (38) 26.07.2012

Brief

On July 26, 2012, a witness in Montchaboud, Isère reported observing a rapid, silent vaporous ball traversing the sky on a straight south-north trajectory at 22:20 local time for approximately 6 seconds, with luminous points visible beneath the object and small trailing jets — logged by GEIPAN as case 2012-07-08299, classification D1 (unexplained). GEIPAN investigators attached this October 25, 2012 Space Safety Magazine article documenting the uncontrolled atmospheric reentry of the Japanese Information Gathering Satellite IGS-1B, which was confirmed on July 26, 2012 at 9:52 GMT over the Pacific Ocean. Amateur astronomer Ralf Vandebergh photographed the satellite just 13 hours before reentry using a 10-inch reflecting telescope, capturing unique imagery of a classified spacecraft with no publicly available factory photographs. The satellite's confirmed reentry time (morning UTC) is approximately ten hours before the witness's evening observation in France, leaving the case formally unexplained.

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

4 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED

Programs

IGS-1B, IGS-1A, GEIPAN, GEPAN, SEPRA

Tags

satellite reentry, IGS-1B, vaporous ball, rectilinear trajectory, GEIPAN D1, Montchaboud France, Isere, 2012, silent UAP, trailing jets, classified satellite

Key points

• IGS-1B was launched March 28, 2003 alongside companion IGS-1A on an H2A rocket into a 486 x 491 km orbit at 97-degree inclination; it had been malfunctioning since 2007 due to announced power loss.p.2
• IGS-1B's uncontrolled reentry was confirmed on July 26, 2012 at 9:52 GMT, located over the Pacific Ocean approximately 1,300 km northeast of New Zealand — the same calendar date as the Montchaboud GEIPAN witness report.p.2
• The article notes it is plausible that a considerable amount of fuel remained onboard at reentry, a factor that could produce anomalous visual signatures during atmospheric entry.p.2
• Vandebergh captured IGS-1B just 13 hours before reentry when its altitude had already dropped below 200 km, using a video camera on a 10-inch reflecting telescope with fully manual tracking.p.3
• Imagery revealed the satellite's characteristic golden thermal foil coloring, partially illuminated solar panels, and surface features described as knots and ridges — the first and only publicly available photographs showing the actual configuration of this classified satellite.p.3
• No pre-launch factory images of IGS-1B or comparable satellites of its type existed in the public domain, making ground-based telescopic photography of classified spacecraft in classified orbits exceptionally rare.p.3
• Page 4 preserves only a linked external image URL (picturepush.com gallery); the visual content is not recoverable from the PDF text layer.p.4

Verbatim

• IGS-1B is a Japanese Information Gathering Satellite that was launched on March 28, 2003 together with its companion IGS-1A on board a H2A rocket.

  p.2

• In 2007 it was announced by officials that IGS-1B was malfunctioning due to a loss of power.

  p.2

• Reentry was located over the Pacific Ocean, about 1,300 kilometers north-east of New Zealand.

  p.2

• It is plausible that a considerable amount of fuel was still onboard during reentry of IGS-1B.

  p.2

• We see clearly the typical golden color of the foil wrapped around the satellite.

  p.3

Most interesting

• The GEIPAN witness report describes phenomenology — a vaporous luminous ball with trailing jets on a rectilinear trajectory — that is consistent with satellite reentry debris signatures, yet the confirmed IGS-1B reentry at 9:52 UTC is roughly ten hours before the 22:20 local (20:20 UTC) observation in France.
• IGS-1B's companion satellite IGS-1A remained operational in orbit as of the article's publication in October 2012.
• The photographer described IGS-1B as one of the highest angular-speed objects he had ever tracked, a function of its sub-200 km orbital altitude in the final hours before reentry.
• GEIPAN's inclusion of this open-source web article in the case file indicates investigators were actively testing the satellite-reentry hypothesis to account for the Montchaboud observation.
• The case's D1 classification in GEIPAN's registry means the investigation concluded without a confirmed explanation, leaving open whether the sighting was related to IGS-1B reentry debris, another object, or an unidentified source entirely.
• The article's cached archive timestamp (04/02/2014) indicates GEIPAN retrieved this web page more than 18 months after the observation, suggesting the satellite-reentry hypothesis was raised during a later review phase of the investigation.