30-second GOES-18 images of the SpaceX SARah-1 launch

By Scott Bachmeier • 18 June 2022

GOES-18 Water Vapor, Near-Infrared and Shortwave Infrared images [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

GOES-18 images in this blog post are preliminary and non-operational

Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Sectors provided 30-second GOES-18 Water Vapor, Near-Infrared and Shortwave Infrared images (above) that revealed thermal signatures of the SpaceX launch of the SARah-1 Mission from Vandenberg Space Force Station in California at 14:19:00 UTC on 18 June 2022.

GOES-18 Water Vapor, Near-Infrared and Shortwave Infrared images at 14:21:55 UTC [click to enlarge]

Signatures of Falcon 9’s Stage 1 booster were seen immediately post-launch (for example, at 14:21:55 UTC, above), as well during its “entry burn” to initiate a launch site landing (at 14:26:25 UTC, below).

GOES-18 Water Vapor, Near-Infrared and Shortwave Infrared images at 14:26:25 UTC [click to enlarge]

Of particular interest was the brief expansion of hot water vapor and CO2 produced by initiation of the Stage 1 “boostback burn” (as seen in Water Vapor and Shortwave Infrared images at 14:22:55 UTC, below).

GOES-18 Water Vapor, Near-Infrared and Shortwave Infrared images at 14:22:55 UTC [click to enlarge]

Plume RGB images (below) provided an integrated view of the rocket booster’s hot/bright thermal signature as well as the expanding cloud of water vapor / CO2.