Rocket launches from Vandenberg Space Force Base have become common over the years. But launches during evening twilight are still pretty special. From Arizona, the rocket launches in  a darkened sky–but cannot be seen for almost two minutes as it remains below the western horizon. Finally, it is high enough to be seen and continues to climb to orbit.

A few days ago, I set up to watch a twilight launch. Previous launches take about two minutes to get above the treeline. This launch took over 2 1/2 minutes and it remained low in the western sky. There is a simple reason. Many of the previous launches I have photographed have a launch trajectory towards the southeast and they parallel the Baja California coastline. This launch, however, had a trajectory to the southwest. This was the reason it took longer to get high enough to see and remained lower in the sky.

Here are a couple of photographs and a time-lapse video of the launch.

Time lapse video of the launch.

Next launch is later this week but currently is scheduled before sunset.