Looking east, the rocket is visible beyond the top of the twisting exhaust plume in this wide angle view, with the waning crescent Moon at the upper right.
The snapshot was taken from Alexandria, Virginia, some 100 miles northwest of Wallops Island.
Orbital launches from Wallops have so far been relatively rare, the last two taking place in 1995 and 1985.
As a result, many early morning risers reported the unusual spectacle.
The rocket's payload was the Air Force Research Laboratory's TacSat-2 satellite and NASA's GeneSat-1 microsatellite.
