{"id":64835,"date":"2026-08-26T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=1ec34e10d6e663a26a6c5c4855c21602"},"modified":"2026-08-26T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T12:00:00","slug":"spacexs-final-falcon-9-starlink-launch-from-florida-creates-gorgeous-jellyfish-over-new-york-city-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/08\/26\/spacexs-final-falcon-9-starlink-launch-from-florida-creates-gorgeous-jellyfish-over-new-york-city-video\/","title":{"rendered":"SpaceX&#8217;s final Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida creates gorgeous &#8216;jellyfish&#8217; over New York City (video)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/kfL7UVo8.html\" id=\"kfL7UVo8\" title=\"SpaceX rocket 'Jellyfish' soars over New York City\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>SpaceX's launch from Florida early this morning (Aug. 25) was memorable in more ways than one.<\/p><p>The mission, which sent 29 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-starlink-satellites.html\"><u>Starlink<\/u><\/a> internet satellites skyward from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/33926-cape-canaveral.html\"><u>Cape Canaveral Space Force Station<\/u><\/a> at 5:33 a.m. EDT (0933 GMT), was the 100th flight of 2026 for SpaceX's workhorse <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18962-spacex-falcon-9.html\"><u>Falcon 9<\/u><\/a> rocket. It was also the 37th flight for this particular vehicle's first stage, setting a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacex-starship-record-37th-booster-flight-100-falcon-9-launches\"><u>new reuse record<\/u><\/a> for the company.<\/p><p>And we learned a few hours after liftoff that it was also the last-ever Falcon 9 Starlink mission to fly from the Sunshine State.<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:4369px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.26%;\"><img id=\"2XMVkHMbcBbwqQ422f5SHR\" name=\"GettyImages-2291976657\" alt=\"long-distance photo of a rocket cruising over the New York City skyline shortly before dawn. the rocket looks kind of like a comet\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/2XMVkHMbcBbwqQ422f5SHR.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"4369\" height=\"2458\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on the Starlink Group 10-49 mission passes by lower Manhattan and One World Trade Center just before dawn in New York City after launching from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Aug. 25, 2026, as seen from Hoboken, New Jersey. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>\"From here on, Starlink missions out of Florida will fly on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/spacex-starship-super-heavy.html\"><u>Starship<\/u><\/a>. The West Coast team will continue regularly launching Starlink from Vandenberg [Space Force Base in California],\" Kiko Dontchev, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/18853-spacex.html\"><u>SpaceX<\/u><\/a> vice president of launch, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/turkeybeaver\/status\/2092267257179021326?s=46&t=OfJPiNIy5PowOsEO5duUhA\" ><u>said via X<\/u><\/a> this morning.<\/p><p>\"In the last seven years, Falcon has flown ~260 Starlink missions from the Cape \u2026 can't wait until we launch that and many more with Starship!\" he added.<\/p><p>Starship, which stands more than 400 feet (122 meters) tall, is the biggest and most powerful rocket ever built, and it's designed to be fully and rapidly reusable. Starship remains in the testing phase; SpaceX has conducted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacexs-starship-megarocket-makes-the-softest-splashdown-ever-after-launching-next-gen-starlink-satellites-in-flight-13-test-video\"><u>13 test flights<\/u><\/a> with the vehicle to date, all of them suborbital.<\/p><p>Starship currently launches only from SpaceX's Starbase site in South Texas. But the company is already building pads for the giant rocket in Florida, and it announced today that it plans to break ground next year on Starbase Louisiana, which it says will be able to support thousands of Starship liftoffs per year.<\/p><p>SpaceX thinks Starship will revolutionize spaceflight when it comes online. The company plans to phase out the Falcon 9 and its heavy-lift cousin, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacex-falcon-heavy-rocket-viasat-3-f3-launch\"><u>Falcon Heavy<\/u><\/a>, after that happens, so the final Falcon 9 Starlink launch from the West Coast may be coming relatively soon as well.<\/p><div class=\"see-more see-more--clipped\"><figure><blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet hawk-ignore\" data-lang=\"en\" cite=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cantworkitout\/status\/2092190838013022400\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched from Florida with a batch of Starlink satellite onboard, passing by above New York City at 5:38 am ET. pic.twitter.com\/Y8kYykAQK8<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/cantworkitout\/status\/2092190838013022400\">August 25, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote><\/figure><div class=\"see-more__filter\"><\/div><\/div><p>The Falcon 9 made quite an impression on skywatchers during this morning's Starlink swan song from the Space Coast, creating a \"jellyfish\" in the sky visible to folks as far away as New York City. Indeed, some people in the Big Apple posted video of the Falcon 9 <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MosheDe_\/status\/2092190838013022400\" ><u>cruising over the city's famous skyline<\/u><\/a>.<\/p><p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/spacex-falcon-9-launch-paints-glowing-jellyfish-across-western-us-skies-photos-video\"><u>jellyfish effect<\/u><\/a> is a regular feature of Falcon 9 missions that launch shortly before dawn or not long after dusk. During these windows, sunlight illuminates the rocket's expanding exhaust plume while the sky itself remains mostly dark. <\/p><p>The buildout of the Starlink megaconstellation has driven Falcon 9's launch cadence to record highs over the past few years. In 2024 and 2025, for example, the rocket lifted off a total of 297 times, and 211 of those were Starlink flights. Seventy-seven of the 100 Falcon 9 launches this year have been Starlink missions.<\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SpaceX&#8217;s last planned Falcon 9 Starlink launch from Florida created a memorable sight for folks hundreds of miles away \u2014 a glowing &#8220;jellyfish&#8221; high in the sky.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2799,1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-launches-amp-spacecraft","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64835"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64835"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64835\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64836,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64835\/revisions\/64836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}