ALSACAT-1996-08-01-GOXWILLER-1
On August 1, 1966, in northern and eastern France at least, there were a few dozen testimonies generally located around 9:30 p.m., typical of a re-entry into the atmosphere of space debris.
Through the GEIPAN website, in 2017, it can be seen that one of the sighting locations was Goxwiller, that there had been a Gendarmerie report on the testimony; but as the cases of that moment are gathered in a national case file and that the numerous reports of the Gendarmerie are anonymized both for the names of the witnesses and the places, I cannot for the moment identify the Gendarmerie report corresponding to the observation in Goxwiller.
The synthesis of the case by GEIPAN however allows us to see that at 7:00 p.m. that day, a 40-year-old woman and a 50-year-old man had seen something.
For the woman, we are told that it was a single object in the sky without specified shape, at "a few hundred meters", and silent.
For the man, we are told that it was a single silent object with rapid apparent speed 1500 meters away in the sky, green.
A curiosity here is of course that the sightings of that evening were around 9:30 p.m., while for this one, for the two witnesses, the time is given as 7 p.m.
| Date: | August 1, 1996 |
|---|---|
| Time: | 7:00 p.m. |
| Duration: | ? |
| First known report date: | 1996 |
| Reporting delay: | Hours, days. |
| Department: | Haut-Rhin |
|---|---|
| City: | Goxwiller |
| Place: | ? |
| Latitude: | 48.432 |
| Longitude: | 7.484 |
| Uncertainty radius: | 2 km. |
| Number of alleged witnesses: | 2 |
|---|---|
| Number of known witnesses: | 2 |
| Number of named witnesses: | 0 |
| Witness(es) ages: | 50, 40 |
| Witness(es) types: | A man, a woman. |
| Reporting channel: | To the National Gendarmerie. |
|---|---|
| Type of location: | Village or country. |
| Visibility conditions: | Day. |
| UFO observed: | Yes. |
| UFO arrival observed: | ? |
| UFO departure observed: | ? |
| Entities: | No. |
| Photographs: | No. |
| Sketch(s) by witness(es): | No. |
| Sketch(es) approved by witness(es): | No. |
| Witness(es) feelings: | ? |
| Witnesses interpretation: | ? |
| Hynek: | DD |
|---|---|
| ALSACAT: | Totally insufficient information. |
[Ref. gei1:] GROUPE D'ETUDES ET D'INFORMATIONS SUR LES PHENOMENES AEROSPATIAUX NON IDENTIFIES (G.E.I.P.A.N.):
SUMMARY
Probable observations of an atmospheric re-entry.
DESCRIPTION
On the evening of August 1, 1996, many witnesses observed the very rapid passage of a very luminous white ball with a yellow and green trail. The luminous phenomenon lasts about thirty seconds. It is described in the same terms from Cantal to Alsace. The times indicated differ a little but the phenomenon seems to have occurred between 9:30 p.m. and 9:45 p.m. with a movement towards the North-West.
This large-scale phenomenon, seen by many witnesses in eastern France, is probably an atmospheric re-entry.
TESTIMONIES
[... other testimonies in other places...]
(68) 08/01/1996
[... other testimonies in other places...]
| WITNESS | |
| DATE OF THE OBSERVATION | 08/01/1996 |
| AGE | 40 |
| GENRE | F |
| REACTION | Emotion - Curiosity, Interest - Active |
| CONDITION | |
| WEATHER CONDITIONS | Unknown |
| LOCAL DATE AND HOUR | 08/01/1996 07:00 p.m. |
| REFERENCE FRAME | Sky |
| DISTANCE BETWEEN PHENOMENON AND WITNESS | several hundreds of meters |
| START OF THE OBSERVATION | Conditions of appearance provoked by the witness |
| END OF THE OBSERVATION | Conditions of disappearance provoked by the phenomenon |
| LOCALIZATION | |
| NATURE OF THE OBSERVATION OR DECRIPTIVE TERMS | Object |
| CHARACTERISTIC OF THE OBSERVATION | Single object |
| GLOBAL SHAPE | Other shape non categorized |
| NOISE | None, Total silence |
| EFFECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT | Unknown - Not specified |
| NUMBER OF OBSERVED PHENOMENA | Only one |
| WITNESS | |
| DATE OF THE OBSERVATION | 08/01/1996 |
| AGE | 50 |
| GENRE | H |
| REACTION | Emotion - Curiosity, Interest - Active |
| CONDITION | |
| WEATHER CONDITIONS | Unknown |
| LOCAL DATE AND TIME | 08/01/1996 07:00 p.m. |
| REFERENCE FRAME | Sky |
| DISTANCE BETWEEN PHENOMENON AND WITNESS | 1500 meters |
| START OF THRE OBSERVATION | Conditions of appearance provoked by the witness |
| END OF THE OBSERVATION | Conditions of disappearance provoked by the phenomenon |
| LOCALIZATION | |
| NATURE OF THE OBSERVATION OR DESCRIPTIBE TERMS | Decriptive terms (lights, shape, etc.) |
| CHARACTERISTIC OF THE OBSERVATION | Single object |
| GLOBAL SHAPE | Other shape not categorized |
| COLOR | Green |
| APPARENT SPEED | Fast |
| NOISE | None, Total silence |
| EFFECT ON THE ENVIRONMENT | Unknown - Not specified |
| NUMBER OF OBSERVED PHENOMENA | Only one |
Note: the GEIPAN publishes numerous reports from the National Gendarmerie relating to these observations on the evening of August 1, 1996; but as all the place names are suppressed, it is not possible to reconcile these proceedings with the corresponding place of observation.
[Ref. jbu1:] JEROME BEAU:
Thursday, August 1, 1996 at 9:30 p.m. to 45 A very large number of witnesses observe the very rapid passage of a very luminous white ball with a yellow and green trail. The luminous phenomenon lasted about 30 s and is described in the same terms from Cantal to Alsace. The phenomenon seems to have moved towards the northwest.
This large-scale phenomenon, seen by many witnesses in eastern France, is probably an atmospheric re-entry.
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On May 5, 1996, the Russian automated and unmanned logistics spaceship "Progress M-31" was launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan by the Roscosmos agency using a Soyuz-U rocket, to bring cargo to the Russian space station MIR, which was done successfully. It was deorbited at 19:44 UTC, then re-entered and burned in the atmosphere on August 1, 1996 until 20:33 UTC i.e. 09:33 p.m. local time in Alsace.
Below: Progress M52, similar to Progress M31.
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The sources are numerous, see for example planet4589.org/space/gcat/data/derived/launchlog.html or en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_in_spaceflight
The most complete data I had (below) was on space.kursknet.ru/cosmos/english/cargoes/prm31.sht
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Unfortunately I have not yet managed to obtain its reentry trajectory.
In this case, the problem is that the time is given as 7 p.m., for each of the two witnesses; this would not be compatible with the supposed space junk re-entry, the testimonies of which are around 9:30 p.m.
Totally insufficient information.
* = Source is available to me.
? = Source I am told about but could not get so far. Help needed.
| Main author: | Patrick Gross |
|---|---|
| Contributors: | None |
| Reviewers: | None |
| Editor: | Patrick Gross |
| Version: | Create/changed by: | Date: | Description: |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.1 | Patrick Gross | February 15, 2023 | Creation, [gei1], [jbu1]. |
| 1.0 | Patrick Gross | February 15, 2023 | First published. |
