See SpaceX rocket’s illuminated contrails across East Coast sky
A SpaceX launch from Florida created glowing exhaust plumes visible across Delaware and much of the East Coast.
A SpaceX launch from Florida lit up the East Coast skies as it ascended along a northeasterly trajectory after launching from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on Tuesday, Aug. 25.
The Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at 5:33 a.m. local time from the space center near Orlando as planned, Florida Today, part of the USA TODAY Network, reported, and deployed 29 Starlink satellites in low-Earth orbit, leaving a trail of illuminated exhaust plume visible from Florida to New York City and beyond.
About 10 minutes later, the Falcon 9 landed on the A Shortfall of Gravitas droneship, “completing the first 37th launch and landing of a booster,” SpaceX said on X.
The Falcon 9 launch marked the 54th orbital rocket launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center this year.
What is Falcon 9?
SpaceX, the commercial spaceflight company founded by Elon Musk, describes Falcon 9 as “a reusable, two-stage rocket designed and manufactured for the reliable and safe transport of people and payloads into Earth orbit and beyond.”
“Falcon 9 is the world’s first orbital class reusable rocket,” SpaceX says about the rocket.
The first “orbital class rocket capable of reflight” has so far completed 680 missions with 633 total landings, according to the SpaceX website.
Contributing: Rick Neale / Florida Today
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@usatodayco.com and follow her on X and Instagram @saman_shafiq7.
That contrail looked fake on camera lol.
So it launched at 5:33am and somehow people in NYC saw it? I thought rockets don’t go that far sideways. Also why do they always leave a glow trail like that? Seems wild.
I don’t get the landing part, wasn’t it supposed to crash into the ocean every time? Like I saw “droneship” and I assumed it’s just a big boat that they drag the rocket onto after it falls, but then it says completed 37th launch and landing of a booster… so which is it?
Elon Musk really out here turning the East Coast into a light show before 6am. Deploying 29 satellites sounds like a lot, but also doesn’t that mean more stuff cluttering space? I swear every time they launch there’s more “visible contrails” and half the time people call it HAARP or aliens or whatever, so I guess it’s good it was actually explained this time.