NUFORC Sighting 19742

Occurred: 2001-09-08 22:30 Local
Reported: 2001-10-04 23:30 Pacific
Duration: 5-7 minutes
No of observers: 4

Location: Flagstaff, AZ, USA

Shape: Light

A satellite emitting very large, camera like flashes?????????

My friend works in Northern Arizona watching for fires from a fire-tower. We were sitting outside facing east watching satellites, shooting stars, the occasional plane etc. My friend sitting to my right pointed out a small light, moving along the same path as the previous satellites we had seen earlier in the evening. He said he saw it flash very brightly "like a huge camera flash going off". We all began to watch it as it flew in a straight line from south to north. It was quite dim until bam, we saw it flash, extremely bright, actually exactly like a very, very big camera flash. Again it would dim out and then zap, another great flash. It did this probably 6 or 7 times before it left our view to the north. What was peculiar was the fact that it seemed to be a satellite however I've never seen a satellite emit a high powered flash before. I thought maybe a plane of some kind but it would have been at a tremendous altitude and it had no beacon lights or flashing lights common on aircraft, just a dim steady light until the big flashes. Has anyone else seen anything like this????

NUFORC Note:

We suspect that the witnesses were observing the fluctuating reflection off the side of a tumbling rocket casing. PD

Posted 2001-10-12