Grasse 2012, Tiangong1 sighting

Summary

A witness in Grasse observed the sky on August 29, 2012 at 6 a.m. While looking at the constellation Orion, they saw a bright light crossing the upper part of the constellation and following a straight trajectory towards the northeast for about five seconds. The description matched the passage of the Chinese space station Tiangong1, moving from west to east and very bright. Verification with Calsky data confirmed that Tiangong1 was near Orion at that time. The GEIPAN classified the case as "B", indicating it was likely a sighting of this spacecraft.