BillCiminelli

Bandwagon-5 this morning. Falcon 9 out of the Cape at 7:04. Rideshare. 32 payloads heading southeast. Closer to sunrise than CRS-35 last week, so the sky wasn’t as dark but, you still get the jellyfish. Same trick though… The rocket is already in sunlight. We’re still in twilight on the ground. Exhaust turns to ice, spreads, and the sun lights it. Difference here is you can actually read the different parts of the vehicle in some of these clearer since it’s lit up more than last week… here’s the sequence in reverse order from later to earlier in the launch. First frame is the split. Bright one with the beam is second stage heading to orbit. The small glowing blob to the left is first stage, already done, going downrange to the droneship. Not a boostback to the Cape this time, so the booster stays in the same piece of sky as the upper stage for a bit. That’s why you get both in one shot. Plus, you see two dots which are the fairings falling back to earth. Second frame, bright point on the right is second stage. The two little sparks under the plume is a fairing half catching the sun. They dump those right after the upper stage lights and then the first stage below with the thursters guiding it to landing on the drone ship Third frame is second stage lighting. Merlin Vacuum in thin air. That’s the bulb. Exhaust has nothing to push against, so it blooms and the first stage is noticeably falling away. The last frame is earlier in the launch when the stack is climbing but has seperated just tighter together. That bright tip is the seocnd stage. and you can see the fairings and booster falling away. Long sunlit trail behind it. Same family of Jellyfish shots as last week. Similar to polar noctilucent clouds but Rocket exhaust in the upper atmosphere. Twilight phenomenon. Want to know when they’re happening, follow @spacejellyalert Photos: me