It’s kind of cute that we haven’t ever really seen what a space rocket launch looks like from above.

Typically, we get to see the launch from the ground, rocket fuel blasting us in the face.

Changing up our perception, a time-lapse video put together by satellite firm Planet shows us a Soyuz rocket, taking off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Cosmodrome on July 14, as captured by their satellites.

How did they do it?

Planet’s Vincent Beukelaers noted it “was a matter of having a satellite at the right place at the right time,” explains Gizmodo:

“Our Dove constellation [of satellites] is a monitoring one, meaning we point each Dove straight down, imaging what’s directly below in strips as the Earth rotates,” wrote Beukelaers at the company blog. “In the hours leading up to our recent Soyuz launch we determined that a Dove would be near enough to Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to get a shot of our newest flock launching. Once we determined it was possible, our Attitude Control team worked with our Mission Operations team to point a Dove at the launch pad.”

The team only had five hours to prepare, but the end result turned out to be pretty amazing – check it:

How pretty? So pretty.

Here’s what the launch looked like from the ground:

Yawn.

[source: gizmodo]