A SpaceX launch left a wild phenomenon in the sky as the Falcon 9 rocket traveled to space at break-neck speeds.
Clear weather conditions and early morning sun rays lit up the rocket’s exhaust plume creating a “space jellyfish”.
On average, Elon Musk and SpaceX will launch a rocket once a week this year.
This morning, a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 53 Starlink satellites made a successful launch and left behind a fascinating glow in the sky.
“Basically, what’s happening is, it’s still dark outside, but you have the sun illuminating the plume as it’s in space,” a SpaceX executive said.
The rocket took off at 5.43 am this morning from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
When the Falcon 9 rocket lifts off with almost two million pounds of thrust, the fuel is exploded in a combustion chamber.
In a paper published by the Glenn Research Center, NASA wrote “The combustion produces hot exhaust which is passed through a nozzle to accelerate the flow and produce thrust.”
The hot exhaust was illuminated as the Falcon 9 reached heights where sun rays were beginning to fill the early morning sky.
Musk tweeted “Another Starlink mission completed” after the satellites were deposited in orbit.
Starlink is a subdivision of SpaceX that beams high-speed internet to customers all over the globe via satellite.
Musk earned heroic treatment from the press when he fast-tracked Starlink terminals to Ukraine at the start of the Russian invasion.
This most recent payload adds to the 132 metric tonnes of equipment SpaceX has deposited in lower Earth orbit.
The next launch is scheduled for May 10th – another round of Starlink satellites will blast off on a Falcon 9 rocket from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
While SpaceX and Starlink are ahead of the pack on satellites, Jeff Bezos’ space company is gaining ground.
Project Kuiper is Amazon’s internet-from-space initiative and they have been given clearance from the FCC to put over 3,000 satellites in lower Earth orbit.
This article originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.
