{"id":72045,"date":"2026-08-30T12:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=72045"},"modified":"2026-09-01T04:02:41","modified_gmt":"2026-09-01T04:02:41","slug":"satellite-signatures-of-the-roman-space-telescope-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/72045","title":{"rendered":"Satellite signatures of the Roman Space Telescope launch"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_g19_16panel_Grace_launch.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Multi-panel display of all 16 ABI spectral bands on GOES-19, from 1125-1140 UTC on 30 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 <em>(GOES-East)<\/em> images <strong><em>(above)<\/em><\/strong> showed signatures of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket booster following the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/news-release\/nasas-dark-universe-seeking-nancy-grace-roman-space-telescope-launches\/\">Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope<\/a><\/strong> launch from Kennedy Space Center at 1126 UTC on 30 August 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1 minute after launch, at 1127 UTC, a multi-panel display of imagery from all 16 <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goes-r.gov\/spacesegment\/abi.html\">ABI<\/a><\/strong> spectral bands on GOES-19 <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong> revealed either a reflective signature (in Visible band 02) or a thermal signature (in Near-Infrared bands 03-06, and Infrared bands 07-16) as the Falcon Heavy rocket was ascending just off the Florida coast.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_1127utc_goes19_16panel_Roman_launch.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_1127utc_goes19_16panel_Roman_launch.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Multi-panel display of all 16 ABI spectral bands on GOES-19 at 1127 UTC on 30 August, with cyan circles highlighting reflectance or thermal signatures of the Falcon Heavy rocket booster [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">1 minute later, at 1128 UTC, thermal signatures of the rocket booster were apparent in Near-Infrared bands 04-06 and Infrared bands <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong>. In the 3 Water Vapor spectral bands (08\/09\/10), a short trail of moisture-rich rocket exhaust was seen immediately behind the leading hot thermal signature of the booster engines.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_1128utc_goes19_16panel_Roman_launch.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_1128utc_goes19_16panel_Roman_launch.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Multi-panel display of all 16 ABI spectral bands on GOES-19 at 1128 UTC on 30 August, with cyan circles highlighting thermal signatures of the Falcon Heavy rocket booster [click o enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A common practice with Falcon Heavy rockets is to have the 2 side boosters perform a series of boostback burns to slow their descent to make a landing on a floating water platform (or in this case, back to Kennedy Space Center), to enable their recycling  for future flights. A signature of dual boostback burns appeared at 1133 UTC in imagery from several of the Near-Infrared and Infrared spectral bands <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_1132utc_goes19_16panel_boostback_burns.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_1132utc_goes19_16panel_boostback_burns.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Multi-panel display of all 16 ABI spectral bands on GOES-19 at 1132 UTC on 30 August, with cyan circles highlighting thermal signatures of the Falcon Heavy side booster boostback burns [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many of the aforementioned signatures were displayed in a larger-scale view of 1-minute GOES-19 <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/goes\/OCLOFactSheetPDFs\/QuickGuide_GOESR_RocketPlumeRGB.pdf\">Rocket Plume RGB<\/a><\/strong> images, created using <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ssec.wisc.edu\/software\/geo2grid\/\">Geo2Grid<\/a><\/strong> <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong>. The hot thermal signature at launch appeared as a cluster of bright red pixels at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/GOES-19_ABI_RadM1_plume_day_2026242_112626Z.png\">1126 UTC<\/a><\/strong>; the brighter yellow-green boostback signature appeared at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/GOES-19_ABI_RadM1_plume_day_2026242_113226Z.png\">1132 UTC<\/a><\/strong>, After the Falcon Heavy departed from the satellite scene, note how the western portion of the rocket&#8217;s trailing moisture plume (pale shades of yellow) was advected slowly northward, while the eastern portion of the moisture plume (which was at a higher altitude) was advected more rapidly southward &#8212; an effect of wind shear with height.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_goes19_rocketPlumeRGB_Roman_launch.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>1-minute GOES-19 Rocket Plume RGB, from 1125-1140 UTC on 30 Auguzst<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A stepped sequence of imagery from all 16 ABI spectral bands is shown below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/08\/260830_g19_bands_01_16_Grace_launch.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Sequence of 1-minute images from all 16 ABI spectral bands on GOES-19, from 1125-1140 UTC on 30 August<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-19 (GOES-East) images (above) showed signatures of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket booster following the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launch from Kennedy Space Center at 1126 UTC on 30 August 2026. 1 minute after launch, at 1127 UTC, a multi-panel display of imagery from all 16 ABI spectral bands on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":72050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,159,45,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-geo2grid","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\/72045","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=72045"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72063,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72045\/revisions\/72063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}