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Satellite signatures of the Starship Test Flight 8 launch

By Scott Bachmeier •

True Color RGB + Nighttime Microphysics RGB images from GOES-16 and GOES-18 [click to play MP4 animation]

In a sequence of daytime True Color RGB + Nighttime Microphysics RGB images from GOES-16 (GOES-East) and GOES-18 (GOES-West) (above), signatures of the SpaceX Starship Test Flight 8 launch were seen — the Super Heavy Stage 1 rocket booster condensation cloud cast a long shadow across the water before sunset, as it became sheared by high-altitude winds over the Starbase launch site near the South Texas coast.

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-16 daytime True Color RGB + Nighttime Microphysics RGB images (source) are shown below.

1-minute GOES-16 daytime True Color RGB + Nighttime Microphysics RGB images [click to play MP4 animation]


16-panel display of all 16 ABI spectral bands from GOES-16, at 1-minute intervals from 2329-2337 UTC [click to play MP4 animation]

A 16-panel display of 1-minute GOES-16 images (above) showed reflectance or thermal signatures from all 16 ABI spectral bands. It is notable that a thermal signature of the Super Heavy Stage 1 rocket booster was apparent in Near-Infrared and Infrared spectral bands 04-16 at 2333 UTC — and at 2334 UTC in bands 08/09/10/16, thermal signatures of (1) the Starship Stage 2 rocket (just after separation from the Stage 1 booster) and (2) the boostback burn of the Stage 1 booster rocket as it began its return to the Starbase launch site.

A toggle between GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images at 2336 UTC (below) showed thermal signatures of the Starship Stage 2 rocket as it was traveling east across the Gulf of Mexico. At that time the rocket had reached altitudes of 70-80 km (where air within the Mesosphere was much less dense, with low ambient pressure) — so the rocket exhaust plume was able to expand outward into more of a curved “boomerang” shape in the Water Vapor image.

Toggle between GOES-16 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) and Shortwave Infrared (3.9 µm) images at 2336 UTC [click to enlarge]

Categories: GOES-16, GOES-18, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Rocket signatures