Category: Rocket signatures
Explosion of SpaceX Starship at the Starbase launch facility in Texas

5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) Near-Infrared and Shortwave Infrared images (above) showed thermal signatures of an explosion of SpaceX Starship at the Starbase launch facility in South Texas that occurred at 0401 UTC on 19 June or 11:01 PM CDT on 18 June 2025 (NASASpaceflight.com article).The resulting large fire was hot... Read More
Satellite signatures of the SpaceX Starship Flight Test 9 launch

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... Read More
GOES-16 views the SpaceX Launch

Imagery from CSPP Geosphere (direct link), above, shows the condensation trail produced by the launch of the SpaceX rocket. Only routine CONUS 5-minute scanning was available to view the launch; very active weather over the southern Plains caused the GOES-16 mesoscale sectors to be positioned north and west of Florida. The 2303 UTC launch (news link), shortly before... Read More