Atmospheric reentry of a Soyuz rocket in France

Summary

On December 24, 2011, several witnesses in France observed bright luminous trails in the sky during the afternoon. These observations were reported to the GEIPAN, the French unit responsible for investigating unidentified aerial phenomena. Additionally, four pilots reported seeing a bright atmospheric phenomenon at high altitude above the Strasbourg and Black Forest region. At exactly 16:26 UTC on the same day, a space debris object identified as 2011 078B reentered the atmosphere. This object was confirmed to be the fourth stage of the Soyuz-FG rocket, launched on December 21 from Baikonur for the TMA-03M mission to the International Space Station. The reentry path matched the locations of the witnesses, confirming that what they saw was the atmospheric reentry of this space debris.