The launch of NASA's twin Van Allen Radiation Belt Storm Probes atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas-V 401 rocket on August 30, 2012 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.  The probes, flying in nearly identical eccentric orbits, will serve to help scientists to understand the sun’s influence on Earth and near-Earth space by studying the Earth’s radiation belts on various scales of space and time.

I only went for one launch image, as I REALLY wanted to nail a specific shot, and the one shot I got was selected for NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) a couple days later.

All images © Mike Killian Photography, all rights reserved.