NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN on CARNIVAL VENEZIA CRUISE SHIP – 2 Dec 2025 –  An absolutely humongous space jellyfish formed at sunset over the North Atlantic Ocean on Dec. 2! –  and the Space UpClose team of Ken Kremer and Jean Wright were so lucky to witness it – along with a bunch of folks we motivated to watch with and saw the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket soar directly over us and the ship and its smokestack and radar dome – happening during our recent cruise aboard the Carnival Venezia Cruise Ship to the Eastern & Southern Caribbean

This was beyond doubt one of the most fantastically magnificent launches I have ever seen and we were nowhere near the Cape Canaveral launch pad – and the jelly fish covered at least 50 degrees of the night sky above the Atlantic Ocean horizon

Rather we were located between Grand Turk and Puerto Rico some 800 miles Southeast and away from the Cape – and not sure we would see anything at all!

Especially since massive clouds were blocking our view until the final minutes before liftoff when they passed away as the ship was sailing southeastwards

The SpaceX Falcon 9 Starlink 6-95 mission lifted off near sunset at 5:18 p.m. EST (2218 UTC) on Dec. 2 from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida

This was even more exciting as Starlink 6-95 launch was the second launch we witnessed from The Carnival Venezia in 2 days – following the Dec 1 link off of Starlink 6-86 along the same southeasterly flight trajectory

The payload comprised 29 Starlink broadband internet satellites delivered to low-Earth orbit (LEO)

The Falcon 9 rocket was soaring on a south-easterly trajectory upon departing from Florida’s Space Coast – about 30 min after local sunset.

Thus we were able to see it since our ship was also heading south east and we were positioned just north of the northern coast of Puerto Rico and virtually right along the rockets flight path

Enjoy our photos for Space UpClose.

With this mission SpaceX completed its third Falcon 9 launch in less than two days.

Overall this was the 25th flight for the first stage booster B1077. 25 supporting this Starlink mission.

F9 B1077. 25 previously launched Crew-5, GPS III Space Vehicle 06, Inmarsat I6-52, CRS-28, Intelsat G-37, NG-20, TD7, and now 18 Starlink missions.

Following stage separation, the first stage landed about 8.5 minutes later on the A Shortfall of Gravitas (ASOG)  droneship, which was stationed in the Atlantic Ocean near the Bahamas.

We were joined by over two dozen eager folks who were uniformly thrilled – see photos.

We hope to see another 2 or more launches during the trip as we continue southward ultimately sailing towards and visiting as far as away the islands of Grenada, Barbados and St Lucia and more – known as the Leeward and Windward Islands of the Southern and Eastern Caribbean.

They all are located along the southeastward flight path of the Falcon 9 which was coincidentally our cruise route.

x