'Jellyfish cloud' soars over California during SpaceX launch
A massive cloud filled the sky over Southern California on Monday evening, taking the shape of a jellyfish with a long tail before slowly dissipating in the night.
People across Los Angeles, San Diego and surrounding areas captured dramatic images of the unusual cloud, which was caused by a SpaceX rocket that blasted off from California's Vandenberg Space Force Base moments earlier.
For rocket-created clouds to appear, conditions must be just right. A launch needs to occur shortly before daybreak or soon after nightfall, when it is dark on the ground. As the rocket ascends into space, it is eventually illuminated by sunlight, resulting in bright clouds that almost appear to glow.
SpaceX rockets are not the only ones that can create the odd-shaped clouds. Similar clouds have been documented by other rockets, including the Space Shuttle, when conditions have been ideal.
Monday evening's SpaceX launch lofted 26 Starlink satellites into orbit around the Earth.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fast Company
2 hours ago
- Fast Company
This company's drug could effectively end the HIV epidemic—but patients remember how it slow walked a past treatment
Four decades after the human immunodeficiency virus was first identified, the end of the epidemic could be in sight. Thanks to treatments and preventive medications, new infections worldwide have fallen dramatically, from 3.3 million at their peak in 1995 to 1.3 million in 2023. Now, with the arrival of a groundbreaking drug from Gilead Sciences, there's serious talk about bringing new cases down to zero. Foster City, California–based Gilead is already the leader in HIV prevention. Its daily oral pill Descovy accounts for about 40% of the U.S. market for pre-exposure drugs, known as PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis). Sales of the company's portfolio of drugs for HIV prevention and treatment reached $19.6 billion in 2024. Some 75% of the nearly 40 million people worldwide who live with HIV receive a Gilead-branded drug or a generic version, according to the company. But the twice-a-year injectable lenacapavir, which is on track for a June 19 approval as PrEP by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has the potential to be a game changer. The first study of lenacapavir to prevent HIV infections, which included more than 5,000 women, showed it to be 100% effective—the first Phase 3 HIV-prevention trial ever with zero infections. In a subsequent study of more than 3,000 men, transgender people, and nonbinary individuals who had sex with male partners, lenacapavir reduced new HIV infections by 96% compared to background incidence. 'A twice-yearly injection to prevent the infection could change everything,' says Gilead CEO Daniel O'Day, 'putting an end to the epidemic and all the health and economic challenges that come with it.' According to one estimate, lenacapavir could avert up to a third of HIV infections in eastern and southern Africa over 10 years, if priced affordably enough. Gilead has trumpeted plans for the rollout of lenacapavir in low- and middle-income countries.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
SpaceX launches Starlink mission from Cape Canaveral, releases new Ax-4 crewed launch date
A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocketed from Cape Canaveral northeastward over the Atlantic Ocean in the early morning darkness Wednesday, June 18, propelling another payload of 28 Starlink broadband satellites into low-Earth orbit. The Starlink 10-18 mission lifted off at 1:55 a.m. from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station while the bulk of East-Central Florida was devoid of significant cloud cover. Designed, owned and operated by SpaceX, the Starlink constellation now connects more than 6 million people with high-speed internet in 140 countries, territories and other markets. Since June 6, Starlink officials announced this list now includes Dominica, the Marshall Islands and Guinea-Bissau. Cape Canaveral: Is there a launch today? Upcoming SpaceX, Axiom, ULA rocket launch schedule at Cape Canaveral Roughly three hours before the Starlink liftoff, NASA, Axiom Space and SpaceX made news by announcing the Ax-4 crewed mission will target 3:42 a.m. Sunday, June 22, for launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The four Ax-4 private astronauts will lift off inside a SpaceX Dragon atop a Falcon 9. But their mission was delayed so small-leak repairs could be studied in the 43-foot-long, Russia-built Zvezda service module of the International Space Station. The Falcon 9 first-stage booster used during the June 18 Starlink mission logged its fifth flight, SpaceX reported. This relatively new booster previously launched SES O3b mPOWER-E, Crew-10, Bandwagon-3 and one Starlink mission Following stage separation, the booster descended and landed on the SpaceX drone ship Just Read the Instructions in the Atlantic Ocean. The Starlink mission clocked in as the 51st orbital rocket launch thus far during 2025 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and KSC. For the latest news and launch schedule from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center, visit Another easy way: Click here to sign up for our weekly Space newsletter. Rick Neale is a Space Reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Neale at Rneale@ Twitter/X: @RickNeale1 Space is important to us and that's why we're working to bring you top coverage of the industry and Florida launches. Journalism like this takes time and resources. Please support it with a subscription here. This article originally appeared on Florida Today: SpaceX launches Starlink mission, releases new Ax-4 crewed launch date
Digital Trends
5 hours ago
- Digital Trends
SpaceX reveals new target date for private crewed launch to ISS
SpaceX, partnering with NASA and Axiom Space, is aiming to blast a four-person crew to orbit at 3:42 a.m. ET on Sunday, June 22. The private Ax-4 mission was supposed to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) from Florida's Kennedy Space Center on June 10, but inclement weather in the ascent corridor forced the mission team to call off the effort. A plan to launch 24 hours later was also ditched following the discovery of a liquid oxygen leak on the rocket. Recommended Videos NASA has also been monitoring an air leak in the Russian Zvezda service module at the space station, an additional situation that prompted NASA, in coordination with its Russian counterpart Roscosmos, to delay the Ax-4 launch for safety reasons while they worked out what to do. Following repairs, pressure in the affected area stabilized, and NASA was able to announce a new target launch date. After patiently waiting in isolation at the Kennedy Space Center, the four crewmembers are now setting their sights on this Sunday, hoping that their long-awaited orbital adventure can finally begin. 'The change in a targeted launch date provides NASA time to continue evaluating space station operations after recent repair work in the aft (back) most segment of the International Space Station's Zvezda service module,' Axiom Space said in a release. Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut and now director of human spaceflight at Axiom Space, will command the commercial mission. Flying with her in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule will be individuals from India, Poland, and Hungary, with each nation on the cusp of celebrating its first-ever mission to the space station. The mission will last about two weeks, with the four members living and working alongside the current ISS crew. Interested in watching SpaceX's first crewed launch since Crew-10's flight in March? Digital Trends has everything you need to know.
