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Satellite signatures of the SpaceX Starship Flight Test 9 launch

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-19 Upper-level Water Vapor (6.2 µm) images, from 2336-2342 UTC on 27 May [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Interleaved 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector and 5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Upper-level Water Vapor images (above) displayed the SpaceX Starship 9 rocket exhaust plume thermal signature after it was launched from the Starbase facility at Boca Chica Beach, Texas at 2336 UTC on 27 May 2025. Note the change in exhaust plume shape with time and atmospheric layer: at early altitudes of 20-50 km (where atmospheric gases within the Stratosphere had more density, and therefore higher ambient pressure), the Stage 1 Super Heavy booster plume was more linear — but after the 2339 UTC “hot stage separation” as the Stage 2 rocket reached higher altitudes of 70-100 km (where atmospheric gases within the Mesosphere and Thermosphere were much less dense, with lower ambient pressure) the plume was able to expand outward into more of a curved “boomerang” shape beginning at 2341 UTC.

The changing shape of the exhaust plume with time (and altitude) was also apparent in 1-minute GOES-19 Plume RGB images created using Geo2Grid (below).

1-minute GOES-19 Rocket Plume RGB images, from 2335-2342 UTC on May [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

A display of all 16 ABI spectral bands from GOES-19 (below) showed that a hot thermal signature of the Starship booster was apparent in Near-Infrared & Infrared bands 04-16 — especially 1 minute after launch (at 2337 UTC) near the coast. In addition, the rocket booster exhaust condensation cloud was seen in all 16 spectral bands, as it began to drift eastward away from the Starbase launch site.

16-panel display of all GOES-19 ABI spectral bands, every minute from 2335-2342 UTC on 27 May [click to play MP4 animation]

A toggle between zoomed-in 16-panel GOES-19 images at 2336 and 2337 UTC (below) made it easier to see the distinct Super Heavy booster thermal signature in spectral bands 04-16 at 2337 UTC.

16-panel images showing the Super Heavy booster rocket thermal anomaly in GOES-19 ABI spectral bands 04-16 at 2337 UTC on 27 May [click to enlarge]

1-minute GOES-19 True Color RGB images from the CSPP GeoSphere site (below) displayed the rocket booster condensation cloud as it drifted eastward away from the Texas coast.

1-minute GOES-19 True Color RGB images, from 2336-2347 UTC on 27 May [click to play MP4 animation]

10-minute Full Disk scan GOES-18 (GOES-West) True Color RGB images (below) also provided a brief glimpse of the rocket condensation cloud as it cast long shadows onto to offshore waters.

10-minute GOES-18 True Color RGB images, from 2330 UTC on 27 May to 0000 UTC on 28 May [click to play MP4 animation]

Categories: Geo2Grid, GOES-18, GOES-19, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Rocket signatures