Avon-les-Roches 1980, a UFO during a rocket launch

Summary

In 1980, during a summer camp with experimental rockets, a witness claimed to have seen a silver sphere that absorbed a rocket. The report reached the GEIPAN in 2015, complicating the investigation. After 35 years, one of the launch organizers was located and confirmed there were no incidents or strange objects. Although fighter jets flew in the area, they were unrelated to the rocket. The GEIPAN concluded the sphere could have been a pilot balloon, and classified the case as a likely misidentification.