question: why do all space launch pictures make the space ship look like it’s going in a full circle?
comment: The rocket doesn't go straight up to exit the atmosphere, it has to curve to conserve energy and reach the desired altitude. So the trail from the rocket explosion is really curved, because its trajectory was curved.
passages: A launch is often restricted to certain launch windows. These windows depend upon the position of celestial bodies and orbits relative to the launch site. The biggest influence is often the rotation of the Earth itself. Once launched, orbits are normally located within relatively constant flat planes at a fixed angle to the axis of the Earth, and the Earth rotates within this orbit.
   Bigelow Aerospace is also considering an option to include lights on the exterior of the spacecraft, potentially visible from Earth, which would be a furtherance of the projection system currently flying aboard "Genesis II". Robert Bigelow noted in an interview that "if you have some blue and green and amber-colored lighting going on, you would have something that really has a lot of blink to it."
  
  Section::::Launch vehicle.
   Due to orbital mechanics, orbits are in a particular, largely fixed plane around the Earth, which coincides with the center of the Earth, and may be tilted with respect to the equator. The Earth rotates about its axis within this orbit, and the relative motion of the spacecraft and the movement of the Earth's surface determines the position that the spacecraft appears in the sky from the ground, and which parts of the Earth are visible from the spacecraft.
   Section::::Properties.
  
  A typical Molniya orbit has the following properties:
  
  BULLET::::- Argument of perigee: 270°
  
  BULLET::::- Inclination: 63.4°
  
  BULLET::::- Period: 718 minutes
  
  BULLET::::- Eccentricity: 0.74
  
  BULLET::::- Semi-major axis:
  
  Section::::Properties.:Argument of perigee.
  
  The argument of perigee is set at 270°, causing the satellite to experience apogee at the most northerly point of its orbit. For any future applications over the southern hemisphere, it would instead be set at 90°.
  
  Section::::Properties.:Orbital inclination.
   After one month of mapping the orbit was rotated to a periapsis at 13 degrees north latitude, where it remained for one more month. This allowed global imaging and altimetry coverage from 60° south to 60° north, over a total of 300 orbits.
   BULLET::::- to handle potential off-nominal launch dispersions from the Minotaur V—which is a stack of five solid rocket stages, and is not considered to be a particularly precise rocket—in a propellant-efficient manner while leaving the orbit profile flexible to large dispersions in the initial injection orbit.
  
  BULLET::::- to widen the launch window to five days. In the event, LADEE did not need this as the launch occurred at the beginning of the window on the first day.
  
  BULLET::::- to increase mission robustness in the face of any anomalous or missed orbital maneuvers with the spacecraft.
   BULLET::::- Declination angle: The "declination angle" or just "declination", from the astronomical term "declination" for the vertical value (north/south) on the celestial sphere, is a "tipping down" of the dish on the mount to allow it to observe geostationary satellites. When observed from any latitude other than the equator the observer is actually looking "down" on the satellite making it look as if it is just below the celestial equator, an angle from the celestial equator that increases with latitude. Polar mounts have mechanisms that allow the dish to be tipped down in a permanently fixed angle to match the declination angle. Mounts may also have a variable declination control to allow them to point at geosynchronous satellites in inclined orbits since those satellites have a constantly changing declination. (Adding such a declination axis to a polar mount results in an equatorial mount).
   After launch, the spacecraft was placed into an orbit around the Earth with an initial perigee of about . SDO then underwent a series of orbit-raising maneuvers which adjusted its orbit until the spacecraft reached its planned circular, geosynchronous orbit at an altitude of , at 102° W longitude, inclined at 28.5°.
  
  Section::::Launch.:Sun dog phenomenon.
   At Kennedy Space Center's 28.5 degree north latitude the situation is more complicated. Over the 90 minute orbit KSC will rotate about . Unlike the equatorial orbit case, however, letting the spacecraft stay in the inclined orbit a little longer will start taking it south of the launch site (for the most efficient launch eastward, where the orbital inclination is equal to the launch latitude, making the launch point the most northerly of its ground path), its closest point of approach being about to the southwest. A spacecraft wishing to return to its launch site will need about 300 miles of cross-range maneuverability during re-entry, and the NASA shuttle designs demanded about 450 miles in order to have some working room.
   When launching a spacecraft to orbit, a "dogleg" is a guided, powered turn during ascent phase that causes a rocket's flight path to deviate from a "straight" path. A dogleg is necessary if the desired launch azimuth, to reach a desired orbital inclination, would take the ground track over land (or over a populated area, e.g. Russia usually does launch over land, but over unpopulated areas), or if the rocket is trying to reach an orbital plane that does not reach the latitude of the launch site. Doglegs are undesirable due to extra onboard fuel required, causing heavier load, and a reduction of vehicle performance.
   BULLET::::- Retrograde orbit: An orbit with an inclination of more than 90°. Or rather, an orbit counter to the direction of rotation of the planet. Apart from those in sun-synchronous orbit, few satellites are launched into retrograde orbit because the quantity of fuel required to launch them is much greater than for a prograde orbit. This is because when the rocket starts out on the ground, it already has an eastward component of velocity equal to the rotational velocity of the planet at its launch latitude.
  
  BULLET::::- Halo orbit and Lissajous orbit: Orbits "around" Lagrangian points.
  
  Section::::Satellite subsystems.
   There are three different modes of camera control. In free mode, the camera moves without inertia. Users can set a constant velocity to travel up to 100 million parsecs per second. Spacecraft and aircraft modes enable inertia, and the user sets an acceleration rather than a velocity. In aircraft mode, the direction of motion shifts with the orientation of the camera; in spacecraft mode, it does not.
   "Cylindrical projection", where the stitched image shows a 360° horizontal field of view and a limited vertical field of view. Panoramas in this projection are meant to be viewed as though the image is wrapped into a cylinder and viewed from within. When viewed on a 2D plane, horizontal lines appear curved while vertical lines remain straight. Vertical distortion increases rapidly when nearing the top of the panosphere. There are various other cylindrical formats, such as Mercator and Miller cylindrical which have less distortion near the poles of the panosphere.
  
  Section::::Projective layouts.:Spherical.
   BULLET::::- Impulse: the integral of a force over the time during which it acts. Measured in (N·sec or lb * sec).
  
  BULLET::::- Inclination: the angle between a reference plane and another plane or axis. In the sense discussed here the reference plane is the Earth's equatorial plane.
  
  BULLET::::- Orbital characteristics: the six parameters of the Keplerian elements needed to specify that orbit uniquely.
  
  BULLET::::- Orbital period: as defined here, time it takes a satellite to make one full orbit around the Earth.
   Section::::Instruments.
  
  Section::::Instruments.:Earth-facing.
  
  The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) and Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) make up GOES-16's Earth-facing, or nadir-pointing, instruments. These are positioned on a stable precision-pointed platform isolated from the rest of the spacecraft.
  
  Section::::Instruments.:Earth-facing.:Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI).
   BULLET::::- The rotational speed of the Earth is greatest at the equator, providing an extra launch "boost".
  
  BULLET::::- The need for a "plane change" to the zero degree inclination of geostationary orbit is eliminated, providing a major extra launch "boost". This allows 17.5%-25% more mass to be launched to geostationary orbit than the same rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, which is at 28.5 degrees north latitude.
  
  BULLET::::- Any orbital inclination could be reached, thus (for example) combining in one launch site the attainable inclinations of both Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg.
  
  Advantages of ocean-based over a conventional land-based launch platform:
   Parking orbit
  
  A parking orbit is a temporary orbit used during the launch of a satellite or other space probe. A launch vehicle boosts into the parking orbit, then coasts for a while, then fires again to enter the final desired trajectory. The alternative to a parking orbit is "direct injection", where the rocket fires continuously (except during staging) until its fuel is exhausted, ending with the payload on the final trajectory.
  
  Section::::Reasons for use.
  
  There are several reasons why a parking orbit may be used.
  
  Section::::Reasons for use.:Geostationary spacecraft.
   Section::::Satellites.
   Space Imaging – The satellite can point to outer space objects like the Moon and stars for enhancement of the image quality
  
  Area Imaging - Images up to 36 km in width through advanced control system that enables three consecutive imaging in one pass to extend the swath width
  
  Section::::Critical design review.
   Sets of descending (southbound) paths at U.S. imaging latitudes occurred first over Pacific Ocean areas west of California and first occurred over eastern parts of the U.S. nearly a day later. After a substantial interval, a new set of northbound and then one of southbound paths over the U.S. occurred, there being four such sets in four successive days, two of them then crossing previous ascending paths. The last on-board recording of data on film occurred during the descending leg of the 30th revolution. That film was ejected and recovered over the Pacific Ocean during the descending portion of the 33rd orbit, after which only down-linked data were available. The final ground swath was imaged in the 72nd orbit, during which imaging ceased because the chemical battery providing system power became too discharged for continued payload operation.
   There is a great deal of variation with time of the velocity change required for a mission, because of the constantly varying relative positions of the planets. Therefore, optimum launch windows are often chosen from the results of porkchop plots that show contours of characteristic energy (v) plotted versus departure and arrival time.
  
  Section::::Atmospheric entry.
   Since the large plate form of the planispheric astrolabe makes it sensitive to the wind, the mariner's astrolabe is made with a frame form. The openings in the frame allow wind to pass through, inducing less motion in the instrument.
   BULLET::::- Altitude: as used here, the height of an object above the average surface of the Earth's oceans.
  
  BULLET::::- Analemma: a term in astronomy used to describe the plot of the positions of the Sun on the celestial sphere throughout one year. Closely resembles a figure-eight.
  
  BULLET::::- Apogee: is the farthest point that a satellite or celestial body can go from Earth, at which the orbital velocity will be at its minimum.
   BULLET::::- Launch due east, carrying 4-klb payload, orbit at 100 x 100 NM
  
  BULLET::::- Payload bay size 25' x 12' x 12', weight capacity 20 klbs
  
  Section::::Performance requirements.:Mark III.
  
  BULLET::::- Pop up and deliver 14 to 18 klbs of mission assets (does not include boost stage, aeroshell, guidance or propellant) to any terrestrial destination
  
  BULLET::::- Pop up and deliver 25 klbs of orbital assets (does not include upperstage) due east to a 100 x 100 NM orbit
  
  BULLET::::- Launch due east, carrying a 6-klb payload, orbit at 100 x 100 NM and return to base
   Eventually the satellite comes around to point D where Earth's gravity is now reducing the satellite's orbital velocity. This causes it to fall into a lower orbit, which actually increases the angular speed of the satellite around the Sun. This continues until point E where the satellite's orbit is now lower and faster than Earth's orbit, and it begins moving out ahead of Earth. Over the next few centuries it completes its journey back to point A.
  