A time-lapse photograph of the CIBER rocket launch, taken from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia in 2013. This was the last of four launches of the Cosmic Infrared Background Experiment (CIBER). Sub-orbital rockets are smaller than those that boost satellites to orbit, and are ideal for making quick astronomy observations above Earth's atmosphere. This photo shows a time-lapse capture of the first three stages of the Black Brant XII class rocket at the time of launch.

Caltech manages JPL for NASA. The work was supported by NASA, with initial support provided by JPL's Director's Research and Development Fund. Japanese participation in CIBER was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.Korean participation in CIBER was supported by the Korean Astronomy and Space Science Institute.

For more information about CIBER, visit http://ciber.caltech.edu/rocket.html.