Incredible picture of the recent Atlas V launch from 3,000 feet at Cape Canaveral. Look how the color of the contrail changes the higher the rocket goes.
This is a great illustration how rockets don't go "straight up" to reach orbit. If they did, they would run out of fuel and eventually plummet back to earth. To enter orbit, a rocket begins to tilt onto its side at first, and gradually increases this tilt until it achieves an elliptical orbit around Earth. This technique of optimizing the trajectory of a spacecraft so that it attains the desired path is called a gravity turn.
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