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What's that in the sky? Look to the west around the time of the launch and you may catch a jellyfish-like plume. What’s that? As the gasses from the rocket expand in the vacuum of space, tiny ice crystals form. And if the sun is at just the right place, those crystals can reflect the sun’s light, according to Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. The phenomenon often occurs right before the sun rises or right after the sun sets, as with tonight’s launch.

Return to Earth: The first stage of the rocket will flip around and begin heading back toward a platform in the Pacific Ocean about six minutes after launch. This is the 15th launch that this first-stage rocket has been part of, according to the SpaceX website.

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