SpaceX Dawn Launch Lights Up Philadelphia-Area Sky on Cargo Run to Space Station

PHILADELPHIA — A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket lit up the pre-dawn sky over the Philadelphia area Tuesday, carrying a cargo ship bound for the International Space Station.

Liftoff came at 6:33 a.m. from Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. The flight, known as CRS-35, is the 35th resupply mission SpaceX has flown for NASA, with the Cargo Dragon spacecraft carrying about 6,500 pounds of supplies and science gear, Florida Today reported.

The rocket’s northeast trajectory made it visible along the East Coast, where sunlight below the horizon can illuminate the exhaust plume in a colorful “jellyfish” effect, according to Florida Today. In Delaware County, viewers watched a bright light arc from west to east, and around 6:45 a.m., about 12 minutes into the flight, the Dragon spacecraft could be seen separating from the rocket’s second stage.

One Delaware County viewer described the rocket as appearing about the size of a passenger jet to the naked eye, trailing a faint exhaust plume as it crossed from west to east. At the moment of separation, the plume flared into a jellyfish shape. As the craft moved farther east and caught the sunlight, it grew harder to track and slowly faded from view.

The Falcon 9’s first-stage booster returned to Earth about seven minutes after liftoff, touching down at a landing zone near the launch pad and delivering sonic booms to Florida’s Space Coast.

The Dragon is scheduled to dock with the space station around 11 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 15. Its cargo includes an experiment built by students at Florida Tech in Melbourne, Florida.

The delivery awaits the Crew-13 astronauts, who launched Oct. 1. They relieved the Crew-12 team, which splashed down off the California coast Oct. 8 after nearly eight months aboard the station.

Launches in the minutes before sunrise offer some of the best viewing from the mid-Atlantic. Rockets leaving Florida on a northeast path often cross the Pennsylvania sky as a bright, fast-moving light.