SpaceX launch paints ‘space jellyfish’ across Florida sky

FLORIDA : A jellyfish in the sky? Not quite – but residents across Florida were treated to a striking blue glow on Tuesday morning (Oct 13) as a SpaceX Falcon 9 launch produced the phenomenon known as a “space jellyfish”.

The rocket lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 6.33am local time, carrying a Cargo Dragon spacecraft with supplies and scientific equipment bound for the International Space Station (ISS).

As the Falcon 9 climbed, its exhaust plume spread across the upper atmosphere and caught the sunlight while the ground below was still in darkness.

The result was a bright, glowing formation stretching across the early morning sky, resembling the tentacles of a jellyfish.

The effect is most commonly seen during launches around dawn or dusk, when sunlight can illuminate the rocket’s exhaust at high altitude even though observers on the ground remain in relative darkness.

For many Floridians looking up that morning, it turned an otherwise routine rocket launch into something far more eye-catching.