2015-06-22 - Minnetonka, MN - Sphere

Perfectly clear night stars in full view.

Slow moving very large sphere-like object which appeared to be enveloped in a white opaque cloud, moving in a steady line from the south-south east to the north-North west.

There was faint aurora boriealis and it appears the steady moving object which kept its straight and steady movement was attempting to be disguising itself in the faint natural light show.

No sound, no blinking lights, just a soft whitish glow that appeared to be enveloped in a cloud moving at the speed of a giant low flying jet at a very slow speed. About the size of a full moon against the stars.

Watched it for approximately 4 minutes until it faded into the distant North to northwest sky. THIS WAS NOT AN AIRPLANE. My first thought was, "Someone else must be seeing this right now..." It felt like it was aware that I was watching it.


((NUFORC Note: Out-gassing event of spent rocket. PD))

((BEGIN COPIED NOTE FROM MR. TED MOLCZAN))

Hello Peter,

Your hunch probably is correct.

The Sentinel 2A satellite was launched on a Vega rocket from the Guiana Space Center, last night at 9:52 PM EDT (Jun 23
01:52 UTC).

Coverage of the launch was here:

http://spaceflightnow.com/2015/06/22/vv05-mission-status-center/

SeeSat-L received several reports of sightings near 23:49 EDT (3:49 UTC), of what appears to have been exhaust from the final burn of the Vega rocket's AVUM liquid fueled upper stage. That burn lowered the perigee to ensure that the object decays from orbit within a reasonable time, in order to curb the growth of space debris.

http://satobs.org/seesat/Jun-2015/0193.html

http://satobs.org/seesat/Jun-2015/0194.html

http://satobs.org/seesat/Jun-2015/0195.html

http://satobs.org/seesat/Jun-2015/0198.html

http://satobs.org/seesat/Jun-2015/0199.html

Marco Langbroek blogged his analysis:

http://sattrackcam.blogspot.nl/2015/06/aurora-hunter-images-last-moments-of.html

Please let me know if you have any questions or comments.

Best regards,
Ted