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Satellite signatures of SpaceX Starship Test Flight 11

By Scott Bachmeier •

1-minute GOES-19 multi-panel images of all 16 ABI spectral bands, from 2322-2329 UTC on 13 October [click to play MP4 animation]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) images from all 16 ABI spectral bands (above) showed thermal signatures of SpaceX Starship Test Flight 11 — launched from Starbase in South Texas at 2323 UTC on 13 October 2025.

A thermal signature of the Super Heavy stage 1 booster rocket was apparent in Near-Infrared (Bands 04-06) and Infrared (Bands 07-16) spectral bands at 2125 UTC (below).

GOES-19 multi-panel image of all 16 ABI spectral bands at 2325 UTC on 13 October, with the Super Heavy booster thermal signatures highlighted by cyan circles [click to enlarge]

After separation from the stage 2 Starship, the stage 1 Super Heavy performed a boostback burn in order to descend and make a soft landing in the Gulf of Mexico (just off the Texas coast) — a thermal signature of the boostback burn was seen in Bands 05-07 at 2329 UTC (below).

GOES-19 multi-panel image of all 16 ABI spectral bands at 2329 UTC on 13 October, with the Super Heavy booster re-entry burn thermal signature in Bands 05/06/07 highlighted by cyan circles [click to enlarge]

A larger-scale stepped sequence of 1-minute GOES-19 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands is shown below.

Stepped sequence of 1-minute GOES-19 images from all 16 ABI spectral bands, from 2322-2330 UTC on 13 October [click to play MP4 animation]

In a toggle between two GOES-19 Upper-level Water Vapor images (below), the change in appearance of the Starship’s superheated water vapor trail changed from a more linear shape at 2327 UTC (at lower altitudes of 50-70 km in the Stratosphere, where the atmosphere had more density and ambient pressure) to a “boomerang” shape at 2329 UTC (at higher altitudes of 70-100 km, where the atmosphere within the Mesosphere and Thermosphere had much less density and ambient pressure, allowing the water vapor trail to spread outward).

GOES-19 Upper-level Water Vapor images at 2327 UTC and 2329 UTC on 13 October [click to enlarge]

A toggle between GOES-19 Shortwave Infrared and Upper-level Water Vapor images at 2330 UTC (below) revealed a cluster of hotter pixels (darker shade of red) at the leading edge of the water vapor trail.

GOES-19 Shortwave Infrared and Upper-level Water Vapor images at 2330 UTC on 13 October [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-19, Rocket signatures