Photo of the Day 423

Rocket Launch, Cape Canaveral, Florida, 1972

Photograph by Otis Imboden

A time-lapse photo captures the brilliant arc of light streaking through the night sky after a rocket blast-off in Cape Canaveral, Florida. This rocket was likely used to launch a weather satellite, which will orbit the Earth and gather data on atmospheric conditions, such as cloud cover, precipitation, and air pressure, used to predict the weather.

(Photo shot on assignment for, but not published in, "We’re Doing Something About the Weather!" April 1972, National Geographic magazine)