A new rocket, the Falcon 9, was launched successfully from
Cape Canaveral,
Florida,
USA, last week.

The Falcon 9,
standing about as high as a 15-floor building, was developed by the commercial
SpaceX corporation as a step toward a relatively inexpensive
space launch system.

Falcon 9's success follows successful launches of the Falcon 1
last year.

Pictured above,
a movie of the Falcon 9's launch includes an insect,
the launch as viewed from far away, and
images from the
side of the vehicle
which include the separation of the lower stage.

When topped with
SpaceX's Dragon
Cargo or Crew capsule, the Falcon 9 may be used to lift satellites and astronauts to low Earth orbit and the
International Space Station in the coming decade.

Related Skylook Posts:

• Exceptional Rocket Waves Destroy Sun Dog
• Waterway to Orbit
• Night Launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour

The space shuttle orbiter Discovery
is now docked with the
International Space Station,
some 350 kilometers
above
planet Earth.

Last Monday, its
launch to orbit was a beautiful one as it
rose into clear,
predawn skies at 6:21am EDT
from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A.

Looking east, this time exposure was taken shortly after lift off from a
marina about 13 miles west of the launch site
in Titusville, Florida.

It shows the dawn's emerging colors along the horizon, with wafting
rocket contrails at the upper right.

The bright streak surrounded by the remarkable, elongated, vapor cloud
near the center of the image is the actual track
of Discovery, arcing toward the horizon and its
orbital rendezvous.

Related Skylook Posts:

• Discovery’s Dawn
• Waterway to Orbit
• Atlantis Farewell from Parkes

What created those rocket waves, and why did they destroy that sun dog?

Close inspection of the
above image shows not only a rocket rising near the center, but unusual air ripples around it and a colorful sundog to the far right.

The rocket, carrying the
Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), lifted off two weeks ago from
Cape
Canaveral,
Florida,
USA into a cold blue sky.

The SDO is designed to observe the Sun continuously over the next several years,
exploring the
Sun's atmosphere
at high resolution and fast time scales.

The air ripples -- seen about one minute after launch -- were unexpected,
as was the sudden disappearance of the
sundog after the ripples passed.

Noticed and recorded by
several
onlookers, there has been much speculation about the origin of
the ripples.

An ongoing discussion about them can be joined
here in APOD's discussion board
the Asterisk.

A leading hypothesis holds that the ripples resulted from a
sonic boom created as the rocket broke the
sound barrier,
which then jumbled a thin layer of
ice crystals
that were aligned to create the
sundog.

Lingering questions include why
other rocket launches
don't produce air ripples as noticeable,
and why the ripples appeared more prominent above the rocket.

If you know of images of any other
aircraft or
spacecraft that have produced similar air ripples, please post them to
the discussion thread -- they may be
help create a better understanding of the effect.

SUN DOG

Related Skylook Posts:

• Falcon 9 Launches to Orbit
• Rollback from GRAIL’s Rocket
• A Last Landing for Space Shuttle Endeavour

The 32nd shuttle mission to the International Space Station,
STS-130,
left planet Earth on February 8.

Its early morning launch to orbit
from Kennedy Space Center's
pad 39A followed the long, graceful,
eastward arc seen in this 2 minute time exposure.

Well composed, the dramatic picture also shows
the arc's watery reflection from the
Intracoastal
Waterway Bridge, in Ponte Vedra, Florida,
about 115 miles north of the launch site.

In the celestial background a waning crescent Moon and
stars left their own short trails
against the still dark sky.

The brightest star trail near the moon was made by red supergiant
Antares,
alpha star of the constellation Scorpius.

Related Skylook Posts:

• Falcon 9 Launches to Orbit
• Discovery’s Cloud
• Night Launch of the Space Shuttle Endeavour

Sometimes, the space shuttle
launches at night.

Pictured above, the space shuttle Endeavour lifted off in yesterday's early morning hours from
Launch Pad 39A in
Kennedy
Space Center,
Florida,
USA,
bound for the
International Space Station (ISS).

A night launch, useful for reaching the space station easily during some times of the year, frequently creates
vivid launch imagery.

The shuttle, as
pictured above, is framed by an enormous but typical
exhaust plume ejected as the shuttle's
powerful rockets
began lifting the two million kilogram
space bus into
Earth orbit.

Endeavour's mission, labeled
STS-130, includes the
delivery of the
Tranquility module to the space station.

Tranquility will provide extra room for space station astronauts
and includes a large
circular set of windows designed to bestow vastly
improved views of the Earth, the night sky, and the
space station itself.

Related Skylook Posts:

• The Last Launch of Space Shuttle Endeavour
• Falcon 9 Launches to Orbit
• Space Shuttle and Space Station Photographed Together