Dr. Furlich demonstrates detection of the Space X Starship IFT 4 launch using weather satellites
Dr. Furlich participated in an exercise to detect and track Space X Starship IFT 4. Dr. Furlich continues his work for unclassified launch detection using weather satellites for the Project Apollo Cohort 3. Dr. Furlich demonstrated an automated capability that checks the latest images from weather satellites for launches and reports out a message to alert on launch location and time. Dr. Furlich successfully detected the Starship IFT 4 using his developed capabilities as a part of a collaboration on this exercise. The exercise is summarized in the image below. (Image Credit: Major Sean Allen, USSF, SDA TAP Lab Chief).
Below is an animation of the detected launch using the Geosynchronous Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) mesoscale domain scans. The mesoscale domain scan produces images every minute. The animation loops through the GOES advanced baseline imager (ABI) channels 7 first from t-2m through t+10m and then channel 8 for the same times.
Dr. Furlich and Dr. Crews continue their participation in the SDA TAP Lab as academic members in the Project Apollo Tech Accelerator Cohort 3. The cohort members are shown in the image below. (Image Credit: Major Sean Allen, USSF, SDA TAP Lab Chief).
Dr. Furlich would like to thank Tim Garner from NOAA’s Space Flight Meteorological Group (SMG) for his request to task the GOES mesoscale domain sector (MDS) over Boca Chica to observe the Starship IFT 4 launch.