Space jellyfish is the archive's name for a glowing, jellyfish-like shape that rocket launches can paint across the night sky. Petrozavodsk, 1977, became the textbook early example. Kosmos 1188 followed in 1980, and witness reports of it were enough to reveal the satellite's approximate orbital inclination. Sokolov and Platov counted it among the most interesting records of rocket effects. Similar shapes have since appeared after launches from Plesetsk and of Falcon 9 rockets. Today the term sits beside the Starlink satellite train as a template for mass misidentification.
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