Explanation:
On April 5, visitors to Kennedy Space Center saw
these colorful clouds, twisting and drifting through
dawn skies.
Of course, the clouds were
rocket engine plumes from the
predawn
launch of the space shuttle Discovery
on the STS-131 mission to the
International Space Station.
Their layered colors are created as they reflect the reddened light
from the still rising Sun.
Fittingly, denizens of the space center's
rocket garden are lit in
the foreground.
At the far left is a 1960s vintage multistage
Atlas-Agena
rocket.
Together on the right, are
Mercury-Redstone and
Mercury-Atlas rockets.
