GEIPAN Case 2009-07-02361 — RIXHEIM (68) 26.07.2009

Brief

Annexe 04 of GEIPAN case 2009-07-02361 (category D1), authored by analyst G. Munsch of IPN-GEIPAN, provides satellite orbital data sourced from calsky.com and heavens-above.com for a transit occurring around 23h45 local time on 26 July 2009. The candidate object is Cosmos 1151 Rocket (USSPACECOM 11672, international designator 1980-005 B), a defunct Soviet rocket body in a near-circular orbit at roughly 599-621 km altitude, with an inclination of 82.5 degrees and a south-to-north ground track consistent with the witness's reported S-N linear movement. The satellite's transit magnitude ranged from 4.1 to 3.9 — described in the annex as low luminosity — emerging from Earth's shadow at 23h44m54s and setting on the horizon at 23h52m43s. The annex explicitly frames this data as applying only to 'phase 1' of the phenomenon, leaving the case formally unexplained; notably, the satellite transit window (23h44-23h52) does not align with the 22h20 observation time cited in the case description blurb.

Metadata

Agency

GEIPAN / CNES

Release

2007-03-22

Type

PDF • .pdf

Length

1 pages

Classification

UNCLASSIFIED (GEIPAN case category D1)

Programs

GEIPAN

Tags

white luminous point, S-N linear trajectory, direction change, acceleration, satellite candidate, Cosmos 1151 Rocket, Rixheim France, 2009, GEIPAN D1, Haut-Rhin

Key points

• The candidate satellite is Cosmos 1151 Rocket, a Soviet rocket body launched in 1980 (designator 1980-005 B), orbiting at 597.9 x 622.6 km with an 82.5-degree inclination — a trajectory that would produce an apparent south-to-north pass consistent with the witness report.p.1
• The satellite's transit magnitude peaked at 3.9, which GEIPAN analyst G. Munsch characterized as 'faible luminosité' (low luminosity), weakening its value as a complete explanation.p.1
• Two independent orbital-prediction sources — calsky.com and heavens-above.com — both confirm the same satellite identification and transit parameters, adding methodological redundancy to the analysis.p.1
• The satellite emerged from Earth's shadow at 23h44m54s (SSE, Alt +39.25°) and set on the horizon at 23h52m43s (NNE, Alt +0.46°), a transit arc spanning roughly south-southeast to north-northeast.p.1
• The satellite data is explicitly scoped to 'phase 1' of the phenomenon only, implying the full observation involved at least one additional phase that this annex does not address.p.1
• The document header gives the observation time as 23h45 HL, while the case description blurb cites 22h20 — a approximately 85-minute discrepancy that the annex does not reconcile.p.1
• At transit peak (23h46m12s), the satellite was at azimuth 94.82 degrees East, altitude +56.10 degrees, and range 731.49 km — the closest and brightest point of the pass.p.1

Verbatim

• Données observationnelles pour le satellite pouvant éventuellement rendre compte de la phase 1 du phénomène observe.

  p.1

• la magnitude entre +4.1 et +3.9 fait qu'il reste de faible luminosité.

  p.1

• Appears: 23h44m54s (satellite exits from Earth's shadow)

  p.1

• Disappears: 23h52m43s (sets on the horizon)

  p.1

• Orbit: 597.9 x 622.6 km, 96.9min

  p.1

• Inclination: 82.5°

  p.1

Most interesting

• Cosmos 1151 Rocket was already 29 years old at the time of the observation, making it a long-lived piece of Soviet-era orbital debris still tracked by USSPACECOM.
• The satellite's intrinsic brightness (5.0-5.1 mag at 1000 km, 50% illuminated) means it is normally invisible to the naked eye; the witness saw it only because it was near perigee and in favorable illumination geometry.
• GEIPAN's D1 classification signals that the case, while not considered highly anomalous, could not be definitively resolved — meaning the satellite hypothesis remains a candidate, not a conclusion.
• The annex's explicit restriction to 'phase 1' implies that some aspect of the observation — likely the direction change and acceleration mentioned in the case description — fell outside what a satellite transit could explain.
• The satellite's elongation from the sun center was 97.62 degrees and from the moon center 132.11 degrees at transit, geometric data that rules out sun glint or moon reflection as brightness contributors.
• The observation time discrepancy (22h20 in the narrative vs. 23h45 in the annex header) may reflect a witness time-recall error, a daylight-saving-time correction, or a multi-phase observation spanning both windows — none of which the annex addresses.