SpaceX Grabs Great Angle Photo of "Space Jellyfish"

Last week's final Falcon 9 launch, carrying Intelsat satellites Galaxy 33 and 34, was delayed from being the "third launch in 31 hours" by a "tiny helium leak."  Apparently delayed both Thursday and Friday because it didn't launch until Saturday evening, about five minutes after local sunset on Cape Canaveral.  To be fair on Friday, SpaceX Tweeted they were delaying another 24 hours for more troubleshooting, which might mean they hadn't found the leak at all by that time.  This was the 14th flight for this booster, and the first time a paying customer like Intelsat said they'd hire a booster that experienced.

We lucked out.  

Thanks to a coincidental alignment of orbital mechanics, Falcon 9’s third launch last week lifted off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station (CCSFS) at 7:05 pm EDT on Saturday, October 5th – five minutes after sunset. The rocket headed east, deeper into twilight, but gained altitude and quickly climbed back into direct sunlight as it ascended toward space. Against the dimming sky, the plumes of exhaust produced by Falcon 9’s booster and upper stage lit up like a neon sign, producing a view that – while rare – has become more and more common alongside SpaceX’s growing launch cadence.

We were treated to a view we've never had before.  The (say it slowly with reverb) Space... Jellyfish...  as seen from recovery ship A Shortfall Of Gravitas (ASOG). 

Four and a half minutes later, just after the booster landed, the cloud was still bright enough to be seen.

Both are screen captures from SpaceX's online video. 

Our next launch from the Cape will be Wednesday night, October 12th at 11:25 PM EDT with a window that extends through 1:24 AM on Thursday morning.  That's 0325-0524 UTC on the 13th.  The payload is a television broadcasting satellite for Eutelsat called Hotbird 13F.  No other Falcon 9 launches have a definite date.  There's an interesting rumor that a long delayed (by the payload) Falcon Heavy mission to launch USSF 44 for Space Force, will launch before the end of October from Pad 39A. Interesting in the sense that there seem to be corroborating reports agreeing with that.