See The Shuttle Launch The Space Coast Missed

So, a lot of folks on the Space Coast were disappointed on Monday when shuttle Endeavour did a disappearing act, ducking into a relatively low-level bank of clouds 22 seconds after liftoff on the orbiter's 25th and final flight -- NASA's next-to-last shuttle launch.

Had it been a top-secret military mission, conspiracy theories about classified Pentagon cloud-generation machines already would be making the rounds.

So, what did we miss? A spectacular, cloud-piercing climb to orbit -- one captured out the window of an airliner by a New Jersey woman flying from New York City to West Palm Beach.

Talk about right place, right time. Check out the amazing photographs HERE.

ABOUT THE IMAGE ABOVE: Click to enlarge the image of the exhaust plume of shuttle Endeavour after it ducked into a ceiling of low-level clouds 22 seconds after liftoff on Monday. The cloud ceiling, which was about 5,000 feet over launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center, hid the shuttle from view but made for an amazing rumble of rolling thunder that washed over 45,000 spectactors at the nation's shuttle homeport. Photo Credit: Morry Gash/Associated Press.