Why this morning's CRS-35 launch glowed like a jellyfish 🪼 The ground at the Cape was still dark, but a few minutes after liftoff Falcon 9 climbed into direct sunlight. Up high the air is so thin that the exhaust plume balloons way out, and the sun, still below the horizon for everyone on the ground, lights it up from underneath. We get the same jellyfish effect on West Coast launches in the evening shortly after sunset. This is physics showing off. A few more fun bits: 🔹 Dragon is taking the scenic route. At about 52 hours, this is the longest phasing to the ISS in Dragon's history, so docking is Thursday around 8 AM PT. The long trip mostly comes down to orbital mechanics as Dragon races to catch up with the station: it fires its engines several times to raise its orbit a little at a time, then lines up and docks on its own. In less than two weeks, we've gone from Dragon's shortest trip ever (Crew-13) to its longest (CRS-35), which shows how flexible Dragon is as a spacecraft. 🔹 Dragon's trunk is carrying the fourth and final set of the station's upgraded solar arrays. Each one unrolls like a yoga mat and puts out more than 20 kW. This pair finishes the station's power upgrade and is just one of many things CRS-35 is bringing to the ISS. 🔹 This is the 4th flight for this Dragon, C211, after CRS-26, CRS-29 and CRS-33. Reusability isn't just for boosters 😉 And a great 8th flight and landing for B1096. Incredible work by the Falcon and Dragon teams, and thank you to our NASA partners! 👏

What an extraordinary week for SpaceX! We launched our quiver of space vehicles: Starship, Dragon, Falcon 9, and Falcon Heavy. We delivered operational next-gen V3 Starlink satellites to orbit for the first time, a plethora of customer payloads, and critical national security payloads that will defend our country. Most importantly, side by side with the incomparable @NASA, we safely flew Crew-13 to the International Space Station. This week is a powerful reminder of what rocket reusability unlocks and what the SpaceX team can accomplish when we stay relentlessly focused and consistently execute at the highest level. Congrats to the entire @SpaceX team and our customers for making the future something to be excited about every single day.