Jellyfish-shaped orb over South Carolina appears to have come from 300+ miles away

On Tuesday morning, some coastal South Carolina residents saw a colorful, jellyfish-shaped cloud bursting through the skies.

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Anne and Jeff Bradley of Harbour Town, on Hilton Head Island, saw the orb in the sky at 6:35 a.m. Tuesday while drinking their morning coffee.

The mysterious orb appears to have been a SpaceX spacecraft, and it’s headed for the International Space Station from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida. It left Cape Canaveral, located east of Orlando, Florida, on Tuesday morning at 6:33 a.m.

It was one of SpaceX’s Dragon spacecrafts on a Falcon 9 rocket, according to NASA. Dragon is capable of carrying up to seven passengers to and from Earth orbit and beyond, according to SpaceX.

Tuesday’s launch was a commercial resupply services mission, the fourth flight for a Dragon supporting the mission to the ISS, according to SpaceX. It included more than 6,300 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo, according to NASA.

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The rocket is expected to autonomously dock at the space station, which orbits in outer space, after a 52-hour trip, arriving at 11 a.m. EST on Thursday, Oct. 15.

The rocket left from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral, located more than 300 miles south of Hilton Head, according to SpaceX.

When SpaceX launches from Cape Canaveral, Hilton Head residents sometimes get to see it, like on March 5, when a glowing orb was spotted in the Beaufort County skies.

This story was originally published October 13, 2026 at 5:21 PM with the headline “Jellyfish-shaped orb over South Carolina appears to have come from 300+ miles away.”

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