ISS Fan Club

One night of summer 2005 I had my car parked in a very dark place. I do have a convertible and the top was open.
As soon as I entered I noticed something that looked like a pretty bright LEO pass in the sky.
I kept staring at the thing for a few seconds and I noticed that there was another object following the first one just a few degrees after.
I just had the time to consider that the orbit was Northbound and that there were no docking or un-docking operations going on up there when the two things suddently accelerated and disappeared in about 5 seconds.
The acceleration unbelievable. I was so astonished that it took me a while before being able to call a friend on the cellphone, explain what I saw and then start the car to go away.
I feel like a stupid writing about that episode but believe me, that night I did not see a satellite, I did not see an airplane... that night I think I saw a UFO.

You are not alone; one night in 1986 or 1987 I was stargazing at Crown Point above the Columbia River Gorge, and I witnessed the very same phenomenon you describe, in different parts of the sky, several times. Sometimes there would be two objects, rather than one. I was totally blown away by the sudden, unfathomably fast (i.e., apparently instantaneous) acceleration from apparent rest, and also by the fact that on a few occasions, the "satellite(s)" would, during their unbelievable repositioning, change course at sharp angles, without deceleration observable from the Earth. The capper was seeing one of the objects emit a searchlight-like white "beam" a "short" distance, which swept an area around the object covering approximately 120- degrees; it then suddenly and apparently instantaneously moved from one part of the sky to another.

Until seeing the one with the "beam," I assumed that this phenomenon was secondary to nystagmus of the eye muscles. I've womdered ever sionce, what it was I saw, and could presume only that it was some kind of military experiment.

- Kevin H. WA7VTD
Oregon City, OR

Hi Alain,

That acceleration thats intresting, we have here F16 fighters and
they often put a bright light on (no flashing lights) when they land.
But I gues you saw it much higher (in space), in that case I have
no clue what it was.

To be honest I never believed in UFO's but I can imagen
that (nature) things happen what can not be explained easely.

Cor PD0RKC

Cor,

here we have F16 as well (bought second hand from the USA...) and also the EF-2000...
As you know I have been observing satellites for years and I work in aeronautics.
What I have seen was not a conventional aircraft (too high and too fast), nor a orbiting object.
Maybe they were two debris of the same asteroid reentering earth. Maybe in my particular perspective, given their re-entry trajectory, they looked accelerating so much.
Still I was very very surprised to see what I have seen. They did not look like falling starts, they looked like something escaping earth orbit under unbelievable speed and acceleration.

Hi Frank, what you saw may have been the NOAA 12 and 15 Polar Orbiting Satellites, they are currently quite close to each other and almost on the same path. Maybe worth checking to see if what you saw corresponded with any passes from these two satellites, as from what you said about them travelling from North to South would make sense if it was indeed them.

James

If you can give your location then perhaps we can identify what it was