A space analyst and sceptic, James Oberg turns up in the debate after several famous cases. Petrozavodsk, 1977. He argued that witnesses had been watching the exhaust of the Kosmos 955 launch from behind, and later compared the display to a 2015 Falcon 9. Over Tehran in 1976, he favoured Jupiter as the main light. He dismissed reports like the 2006 O'Hare sighting as of zero evidential value. The 2009 Norwegian spiral, he wrote, was yet another failed test. Ten years later he noted that the ordinary explanation had been rejected in favour of more exciting theories.
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Space writer who criticised the growth of Cooper's story
Space analyst who argued the object was the Titan II second stage
Author of "Gemini-7: Lessons and Legends" (1995), which put the bogey down to booster debris
Space journalist who favoured Proton 3 and corresponded with the crew
Soviet space programme expert who linked the crescents to secret FOBS launches
Space writer who attributed the object to a jettisoned SLA panel
Space journalist who argued the object was debris shed by Skylab
Author of a case summary on satobs.org
Linked the event to the Kosmos-955 launch from Plesetsk
Space analyst who found a correlation with Poseidon launches
CSICOP analyst who linked the sightings to Kosmos 1188
Proposed the missile launch explanation
Skeptical Inquirer author who argued for a missile launch seen from afar
NASA space engineer and sceptic who called the case unresearchable
Former NASA Johnson Space Center engineer, the main sceptical analyst (ice and thruster explanation)
Pro earlySpace analyst credited with identifying the Progress M-21 launch
Former NASA JSC engineer and sceptic; dated the footage to days after the break
Former NASA trajectory engineer who identified the object as a trunnion pin thermal cover
NBC space analyst, main critic
Space journalist who suggested ice thrown between turbines
Space analyst and author of later essays on the event