A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches the tenth batch of 57 Starlink satellites along with two BlackSky satellites for a private customer on 7 August 2020 at 1:12 a.m. from Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The rocket arcs out over the Atlantic Ocean under moonlit skies as seen in this time exposure from Vero Beach, Florida.
Note the yellow streak above the beginning of the arc at left. This is called a sun pillar according to the United Kingdom’s Met Office caused by “. . .light reflecting from the horizontal surfaces of slowly falling hexagonally shaped ice crystals that are present in cirriform clouds, especially cirrostratus clouds.” These are the same types of clouds evident in the night sky in the image. The ice crystals caught the bright light of ignition and the beginning of the launch.
Categories: Rocket Launch