SpaceX Rocket Unleashes Eerie Jellyfish Glow Over Florida

A SpaceX rocket left a glowing, jellyfish-like plume stretched across the dawn sky over Florida as it climbed toward orbit on the morning of October 20.

Photographer Andrew Dees filmed the spectacle above a row of palm trees as the sky turned from orange to blue, capturing the rocket’s bright exhaust trail and a ballooning, translucent cloud at its tip that slowly spread as the vehicle continued its climb. “Did you see this morning’s SpaceX launch?” Dees asked alongside the footage.

The Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 7:04 a.m. local time on the Bandwagon-5 rideshare mission, carrying 32 payloads including cubesats, microsats and reentry vehicles. Launching shortly before sunrise, the rocket’s exhaust was lit by sunlight high in the atmosphere while the ground below was still in twilight, producing the eerie glow.

The booster, flying for the 19th time, landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship in the Atlantic about nine minutes after liftoff. The final payload on the deployment schedule was a Starfall reentry capsule designed to bring cargo back from space.