h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My wife and I were sitting in the conservatory last night when my wife looked up and said - oh there's a plane passing over. Being a bit of a sky enthusiast I popped outside to see it, and I was completely mystified. It didn't look like a plane - in fact there were two objects shining quite brightly (maybe as bright as Jupiter, if not brighter). One object was following the other along the same arc in the sky, but as we continues to look, the second object actually began to catch up on the first object, and it passed it out just overhead of us (it might have been parallax, I don't know). I thought it might have been the International Space Station, but it was over the Pacific at the time, and there were no bright satellites in the vicinity (well, nothing that bright). The ISS did pass over an hour later, but it seemed dimmer, and slower, compared to the former two objects.

They could have been planes, but there were no flashing lights, no vapour trails, and it was long after sunset, so they would have to have been very high altitude for them to shine so brightly.

The jury is out.

The problem might be solved. I think I saw the Space Shuttle, only minutes after blasting off from Cape Canaveral. It's fuel tank had detached, and what I think I saw were both objects.

Case closed?