# Press release: LaunchDetect launches independent thermal-detection service for rocket launches

**For immediate release — 2026**

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## LaunchDetect launches the first public service to confirm every rocket on Earth from geostationary thermal satellites

**United States — 2026** — LaunchDetect today announced the public launch of the first independent thermal-detection service for rocket launches, available on the web at https://launchdetect.com/ and as native iOS and Android apps.

LaunchDetect detects every rocket launch on Earth by monitoring the 3.9-micron shortwave infrared band on three geostationary weather satellites — NOAA GOES-18, NOAA GOES-19, and JMA Himawari-9. A rocket's exhaust plume is hundreds of kelvin hotter than its surroundings, producing a transient thermal anomaly that LaunchDetect's pipeline extracts, geocodes against a registry of 17 active spaceports, and verifies as a launch detection within 30 to 90 seconds of ignition.

"Rocket schedules slip. Weather scrubs. Static-fire holds. Half the time the broadcast doesn't even start. The only thing that doesn't lie is the actual thermal signature when the engines light," said the LaunchDetect team. "We watch the hardware on the pad, not the schedule."

LaunchDetect is independent of any launch operator, government agency, or broadcast feed. Detections are sourced directly from publicly archived NOAA and JMA satellite imagery, meaning every detection is a primary-source artifact that any journalist, researcher, or analyst can independently verify.

### What makes LaunchDetect different

- **Independent confirmation**: not a press-release aggregator. Every detection is grounded in a specific GOES or Himawari thermal frame.
- **30-to-90-second latency**: verified detection record posts faster than most operator livestream broadcasts can confirm liftoff.
- **17 active spaceports covered**: Cape Canaveral, Kennedy, Vandenberg, Wallops, Kodiak, Starbase, Kourou, Baikonur, Plesetsk, Vostochny, Tanegashima, Uchinoura, Wenchang, Jiuquan, Xichang, Taiyuan, Sriharikota, Mahia.
- **Every operator**: SpaceX, NASA, ULA, Arianespace, Roscosmos, JAXA, ISRO, CASC, Rocket Lab, Astra, Firefly, ABL, Blue Origin, and emerging commercial operators.
- **Real-time push alerts**: native iOS and Android apps fire APNs/FCM push within 30 to 90 seconds of any launch ignition.
- **Citation-grade record**: each launch has a permanent URL with structured schema.org Event + NewsArticle JSON-LD for academic and journalistic citation.

### Pricing

LaunchDetect's free tier includes the live 3D space map, the per-launch citation archive, and public data feeds. Silver ($4.99/month) adds push alerts, the Tonight's Sky visibility predictor, and geofiltered alerts. Gold ($9.99/month) adds AR sky replay and community sightings. Business pricing (with API access, webhooks, and SLA) is contact-only.

### About LaunchDetect

LaunchDetect was founded in 2025 to provide independent confirmation of rocket launches as an alternative to operator-published schedules. The service uses only publicly available data from NOAA and JMA geostationary weather satellites and is not affiliated with any space agency or operator.

Web: https://launchdetect.com/
iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/launchdetect-space-monitor/id6762911197
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.launchdetect.app
Press contact: ops@launchdetect.com

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**Suggested headlines:**
- "LaunchDetect debuts independent rocket-launch detection from weather satellites"
- "New service confirms rocket launches from orbit, no operator press release required"
- "LaunchDetect: every rocket launch on Earth, detected in 30 seconds"
- "Independent thermal-detection service watches every spaceport on Earth"

**Boilerplate for short mentions:**
LaunchDetect (https://launchdetect.com/) is an independent thermal-detection service that confirms every rocket launch on Earth from NOAA GOES and JMA Himawari geostationary weather satellites within 30 to 90 seconds of ignition.

**Word counts:**
- Tweet/X short: 240 chars max — "LaunchDetect: the only public service that detects every rocket launch on Earth from geostationary thermal satellites, 30-90s from ignition. iOS + Android. https://launchdetect.com/"
- Pull-quote: 50 words
- Lede paragraph: 80 words
- Full release: 380 words above