Residents across parts of Florida could be treated to an unusual sight in the predawn sky on Tuesday as SpaceX prepares to launch its Bandwagon-5 mission from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, which is located on Florida’s Atlantic coast in Brevard County, on Cape Canaveral, just southeast of the Kennedy Space Center. The mission is scheduled to launch during a one-hour window beginning at 6:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, October 20, shortly before sunrise.
This timing means the flight could produce a striking phenomenon commonly nicknamed a "space jellyfish," although whether one appears will depend on the exact liftoff time and atmospheric conditions. Newsweek has reached out to SpaceX and NASA for comment. SpaceX operates a rideshare program that allows satellite operators to share space aboard its rockets.
This particular mission, Bandwagon-5, will use the company's Falcon 9 rocket to carry multiple satellites into orbit during a single launch. The mission will carry 32 payloads, including satellites from ICEYE, Tomorrow.io, and PlanetiQ, among others, according to the official SpaceX deployment schedule. The bottom part of the Falcon 9 rocket, known as the first stage or reusable booster, has already launched and recovered 18 times, and Tuesday’s Bandwagon-5 mission is expected to mark its 19th flight.
According to SpaceX, it has previously supported missions including Crew-9, Firefly Blue Ghost Mission 1, Fram2, and 10 Starlink launches. After separating from the rest of the rocket, the reusable booster is expected to land on "A Shortfall of Gravitas," one of SpaceX’s floating landing platforms, called a droneship, in the Atlantic Ocean. SpaceX originally targeted Monday, October 19, for the launch, with Tuesday as the backup option.
However, "due to unfavorable recovery weather conditions" it was forced to delay. According to the National Weather Service, strong northeasterly winds affected the Cape Canaveral area on Monday, with gusts reaching as high as 28 mph during the early morning. Although SpaceX hasn't confirmed whether the wind played a part in the delay, strong winds could stop a rocket launch if they exceed safety limits and could affect the rocket’s flight through the atmosphere.
The windy conditions were expected to ease on Tuesday, though. The NWS forecast for the Cape Canaveral area currently shows light north to north-northeasterly winds of around 10 to 15 mph, with the agency expecting the northeast winds to "let up just a bit" over central Florida. Despite the name, a space jellyfish has nothing to do with an animal in space.
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