Shuttle Launch

by Francisco Reyes

An amazing view of the launch of the Discovery shuttle, mission STS-131!

The video recording was made from the roof of the Astronomy building at the University of Florida Campus in Gainesville, FL.

Like many other people, I was expecting the "exciting" part of the launch to end after the separation of the solid rocket boosters. Normally the shuttle main engines get faint after the separation, but about a minute after separation they became brighter and a comet-like cloud began to form around the shuttle. I have seen several night launch and this is the first in which I saw this effect. According to NASA sources, it was the illumination of the exhaust plume of the shuttle engines by the rising sun, rapidly expanding due to the low pressure and density of the atmosphere at that altitude.

An spectacular view that will remain in our memories of one of the last flights of the shuttle!