CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. Skywatchers across the southeastern United States were treated to a rare, luminous atmospheric spectacle on the morning of Tuesday, October 13, 2026.
Following the 6:33 a.m. EDT liftoff of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a brilliant, glowing plume reshaped the pre-dawn horizon.
Resembling a translucent, bioluminescent aquatic organism, the striking "space jellyfish" phenomenon was captured by observers hundreds of miles away, with sightings reported across Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, and as far west as Grand Isle and southeast Louisiana. Local outlets including FOX 35 Orlando and WKMG ClickOrlando fielded dozens of reader photographs within minutes of liftoff.
The flight, designated SpaceX CRS-35, marks NASA's 35th commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station (ISS), carrying over 6,300 pounds of science experiments, crew supplies, and station maintenance hardware into orbit.
SpaceX CRS-35 Mission Profile ├── Launch Window: Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, at 6:33 a.m. EDT (10:33 UTC) ├── Rocket and Payload: Falcon 9 Block 5 / Cargo Dragon (4th flight for capsule) ├── Primary Objective: Transport ~6,300 lbs of scientific cargo and supplies to the ISS └── Planned ISS Docking: Thursday, Oct. 15, at ~11:00 a.m. EDT (Zenith Port)
The Physics Behind the Space Jellyfish
While the glowing structure often sparks viral UFO speculation on social media, atmospheric scientists and optical physicists recognize the event as a textbook manifestation of the twilight phenomenon.
Anatomy of a Twilight Phenomenon (Space Jellyfish) ├── 1. Pre-Dawn Surface Darkness: Ground observers remain in Earth's shadow before sunrise ├── 2. Atmospheric Elevation: Rocket ascends above 100 km into high-altitude sunlight ├── 3. Vacuum Exhaust Expansion: Water vapor and carbon dioxide expand rapidly in low pressure └── 4. Solar Scattering: Sunlight strikes expanding exhaust, scattering blue and white light
The optical effect relies on precise astronomical timing:
1. Ground darkness. At 6:33 a.m., Cape Canaveral and surrounding regions remained shrouded in pre-dawn darkness, roughly 48 minutes before local sunrise.
2. High-altitude sunlight. As the Falcon 9 climbed above 100 kilometers (62 miles) into the upper mesosphere and thermosphere, it broke out of Earth's shadow into direct, unhindered sunlight.
3. Exhaust expansion in vacuum. At near-vacuum pressures, hot exhaust gases, primarily water vapor (H2O) and carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted by the upper stage's Merlin Vacuum engine, expanded rapidly outward into a massive, bulbous plume.
4. Rayleigh scattering. High-altitude sunlight struck the ice crystals freezing out of the expanding gas cloud, scattering short-wavelength blue and silver light back toward observers in darkness on the ground below.
The rocket's second stage formed the glowing bell or head of the jellyfish, while the returning first-stage booster, executing its retro-burns to land at Landing Zone 40, created the trailing tentacles.
Twilight Phenomenon Optics
[Sun Below Ground Horizon (Surface Darkness)]
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v
[Falcon 9 Upper Stage Ascends to ~100+ km Altitude]
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v
[Exhaust Gas Expands into Low-Pressure Mesosphere]
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v
[High-Altitude Sunlight Illuminates Frozen Water Molecules]
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v
[Spectacular Jellyfish Plume Rendered Visible on Earth]
Why the Shape Looks Like a Jellyfish
The bell forms where the upper stage plume spreads widest, and the tentacles are the streaks left by the booster's grid-fin descent and the retro-burn ignition. Wind shear at mesospheric altitudes then stretches the cloud sideways, thinning the trailing edge into filaments.
The same geometry appears in almost every twilight phenomenon, which is why the effect is predictable rather than anomalous. Launch operators can forecast it: a liftoff in the narrow window when the surface is dark but the orbital path is sunlit guarantees an illuminated plume. What made CRS-35 unusually vivid was the combination of a pre-dawn window, low humidity at ground level, and clear skies across a wide swath of the Gulf and Southeast coast.
Cargo Dragon En Route to the ISS
Beyond the photogenic display, the CRS-35 mission represents a critical operational supply line for the laboratory crew currently residing on the ISS.
Following second-stage separation, the uncrewed Cargo Dragon spacecraft deployed its solar arrays and initiated a 52-hour phasing orbit to rendezvous with the station, according to NASA's mission release.
Key Scientific Payloads (CRS-35) ├── Plant Biology: Advanced microgravity growth chambers testing drought-resistant crops ├── Material Science: Metal alloy crystallization experiments in low-gravity furnaces └── Medical Research: Biomaterial matrices analyzing tissue regeneration and cell therapy
Cargo Dragon is scheduled to perform an automated docking at the ISS Harmony module's zenith port on Thursday, October 15, at approximately 11:00 a.m. EDT.
The arrival follows the recent departure of the Crew-12 spacecraft, clearing vital docking ports for upcoming orbital logistics throughout Expedition 75. That crew returned to a Pacific splashdown off California on October 8 after a 237-day mission, and their replacements arrived aboard Crew-13 on October 1.
| Operational Parameter | CRS-35 Baseline Data |
|---|---|
| Primary Agency | NASA / SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services |
| Launch Facility | SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, FL |
| First Stage Recovery | Successful land landing at Landing Zone 40 (LZ-40) |
| Spacecraft Duration | Scheduled to remain attached to ISS through mid-November 2026 |
CRS-35 also continues a launch cadence that has become routine enough that sky phenomena like this one now recur monthly across the Southeast. Earlier this month the same Falcon 9 fleet flew a record 36th flight of booster B1067 to deliver a Starlink 10-42 batch. For readers tracking the pre-dawn sky this week, the same October weather window that made the jellyfish visible also framed the NOAA G2 geomagnetic storm watch that put auroras within reach of the northern states.
Frequently Asked Questions
The CRS-35 jellyfish was, in the end, an ordinary launch photographed at an extraordinary hour. The physics was settled in the 1950s, the rocket was on its fourth or thirty-sixth flight depending on which hardware you count, and the cargo is already on its way to the station. Only the timing made it look like something from the deep ocean, drifting over a coastline that was still dark.