Be Kind: Take an astronaut to launch this week.

After a couple of delays, the SDO launch finally took place. It was kind of exciting to be able to take part in the media process with the other attendees. The Atlas V rocket was able to liftoff without any delay through a clear sky. Right at launch time a rainbow developed as the rocket took off with an astounding view of some visible concentric rings that spread out as it punched through the cloud layer and went supersonic. A lot of people were excited to see the real mission finally start and eagerly anticipate the data that will be coming out soon. I think I even captured a few shots right as the rocket went supersonic. You can just barely see it over the nose of the craft in the top few shots.

Here is a link to some replays of the launch itself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qvX9ZeSys8&feature=related