A SpaceX Starlink launch put on a stunning sky show this morning (March 4), as its towering clouds were lit up by the yet-to-rise sun.
The Falcon 9’s first stage, Booster 1080, completed its 25th flight to space and back with a landing on the drone ship “A Shortfall of Gravitas” located off the coast of Florida in the Atlantic Ocean. according to SpaceXit was the 580th landing in the company’s history.
The 29 Starlink satellites were added to SpaceX megaconstellationwhich is rapidly approaching 10,000 units in orbit.
Today’s launch was SpaceX’s 28th mission of the year, out of more than 600 in the company’s history. Twenty-three of the 28 launches in 2026 have been dedicated to building out the Starlink mega-constellation.
Space “jellyfish” are not that unusual; they appear quite regularly when Falcon 9 rockets launch around dusk or dawn.
At these times, sunlight illuminates the exhaust from the rocket’s upper stage, which consists mainly of water vapor and carbon dioxide. The sky, meanwhile, is still relatively dark, allowing these glowing clouds to be seen by observers on the ground.
