Leroy Chiao Witnesses Five Lights Fly in Formation Past His Spacecraft

During a spacewalk with a Russian crewmate, NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao saw something baffling cruise past the ISS.

“As the sun started rising after the first dark period, I looked out in the opposite direction of the sun and saw a line of five lights,” Chiao said. The lights seemed to be flying past fairly quickly “in an echelon formation, except that ‘No. 2’ was offset,” Chiao told Aviation Week & Space Technology.

It is speculated they could have been a constellation of satellites, or the bright lights of fishing trawlers from the ocean, but the mystery remains unsolved.