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Satellite signatures of the Artemis II launch

By Scott Bachmeier •

30-second GOES-19 Rocket Plume RGB images, from 2234-2241 UTC on 01 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

Overlapping 1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sectors provided 30-second imagery from GOES-19 (GOES-East) to support the launch of Artemis II — and Rocket Plume RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) displayed both the hot thermal signature of the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) Core Stage rocket booster near the Kennedy Space Center launch site (brighter red pixels: 2235 UTC) in addition to the high-altitude thermal signature of moisture-laden rocket exhaust (brighter shades of green: 2239 UTC) as the spacecraft moved quickly eastward away from Florida after launch at 2235 UTC on 01 April 2026.

Multi-panel displays of GOES-19 imagery (below) revealed that reflectance and/or thermal signatures of the SLS rocket booster and its condensation plume were apparent in all 16 ABI spectral bands.

30-second GOES-19 images of all 16 ABI spectral bands, from 2234-2237 UTC on 01 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

A GOES-18 (GOES-West) Mesoscale Domain Sector was also positioned over the launch area — and in spite of a much of a much larger satellite viewing angle, reflectance and/or thermal signatures of the SLS rocket booster and its condensation plume were also seen in all 16 of the GOES-18 ABI spectral bands (below).

1-minute GOES-18 images of all 16 ABI spectral bands, from 2234-2237 UTC on 01 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

A larger-scale view of 1-minute GOES-18 Water Vapor imagery (below) tracked the thermal signature of the SLS Core Stage booster as it approached the eastern limb of the satellite view at 2341 UTC.

1-minute GOES-18 Upper-level Water Vapor (top), Mid-level Water Vapor (center) and Low-level Water Vapor (bottom) images, from 2234-2241 UTC on 01 April [click to play animated GIF | MP4]

30-second GOES-19 True Color RGB images (below) showed the SLS rocket booster’s condensation cloud as it initially arched northeast away from the Florida coast — but wind shear soon began to deform the cloud feature.

30-second GOES-19 True Color RGB images, from 2234-2248 UTC on 01 April [click to play animated GIF]

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