{"id":70605,"date":"2026-05-22T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=70605"},"modified":"2026-05-24T22:53:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T22:53:06","slug":"satellite-signatures-of-the-spacex-starship-flight-test-12-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/70605","title":{"rendered":"Satellite signatures of the SpaceX Starship Flight Test 12 launch"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div style=\"width: 2010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260522_goes16_goes19_trueColorRGB_SpaceX_Starship_rocket_booster_condensation_cloud.mp4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260522_goes16_trueColorRGB_Starship12_launch_condensation_cloud_anim.mp4_combined_horizontally_with_260522_goes19_trueColorRGB_Starship12_launch_condensation_cloud_anim.mp4_fr000020.png\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1000\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">True Color RGB images from GOES-16 (left) and GOES-19 (right), from 2226-2331 UTC on 22 May [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>The SpaceX <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spacex.com\/launches\/starship-flight-12\"><strong>Starship Flight Test 12<\/strong><\/a> was launched from the Starbase facility at 2230 UTC on 22 May 2026 &#8212; and 5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-16 and GOES-19 <em>(GOES-East)<\/em>\u00a0True Color RGB images created using <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/software\/geo2grid\/\"><strong>Geo2Grid<\/strong><\/a> <em><strong>(above)<\/strong><\/em> showed the Super Heavy rocket booster condensation cloud as it drifted away from the South Texas coast and eastward across the Gulf of Mexico. Enhanced forward scattering from the GOES-19 satellite perspective led to a more hazy appearance of those images (GOES-16, positioned more closely overhead at 104.7 W longitude during its annual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ospo.noaa.gov\/data\/messages\/2026\/05\/MSG_20260508_1915.html\"><strong>test period<\/strong><\/a>, was therefore not as affected by forward scattering at that time of day).<\/p>\n<p>GOES-16 <a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/OCLOFactSheetPDFs\/QuickGuide_GOESR_RocketPlumeRGB.pdf\"><strong>Rocket Plume RGB<\/strong><\/a> imagery <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> captured a vivid high-altitude signature of the trail of superheated water vapor (shades of yellow to lime green in the <a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/GOES-16_ABI_RadC_plume_2026142_223119Z.png\"><strong>2231 UTC image<\/strong><\/a>) in the wake of the Super Heavy rocket booster shortly after launch. The eastward drift of the lower-altitude rocket booster condensation cloud (darker shades of reddish-brown) was also apparent.<\/p>\n<p><div style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260522_goes16_rocketPlumeRGB_SpaceX_Starship_launch_anim.mp4\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/GOES-16_ABI_RadC_plume_2026142_223119Z.png\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1000\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-16 Rocket Plume RGB images, from 2226-2331 UTC on 22 May [click to play MP4 animation]<\/p><\/div>A toggle between the 2231 UTC GOES-16 Rocket Plume RGB and True Color RGB images <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> revealed that there was no corresponding signature of the high-altitude superheated water vapor trail in the True Color image &#8212; but a signature of the rocket booster condensation cloud appeared in both images, immediately off the coast.<\/p>\n<div style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260522_2231utc_goes16_rocketPlumeRGB_trueColorRGB_anim.gif\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/05\/260522_2231utc_goes16_rocketPlumeRGB_trueColorRGB_anim.gif\" width=\"1000\" height=\"1000\" \/><\/a><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">GOES-16 Rocket Plume RGB and True Color RGB images at 2231 UTC on 22 May [click to enlarge]<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The SpaceX Starship Flight Test 12 was launched from the Starbase facility at 2230 UTC on 22 May 2026 &#8212; and 5-minute CONUS Sector GOES-16 and GOES-19 (GOES-East)\u00a0True Color RGB images created using Geo2Grid (above) showed the Super Heavy rocket booster condensation cloud as it drifted away from the South Texas coast and eastward across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":70606,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,74,159,45,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geo2grid","category-goes-16","category-goes-19","category-redgreenblue-rgb-images","category-rocket-signatures"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70605"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70605\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":70619,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70605\/revisions\/70619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70606"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}