That rocket launch was a NASA program called Deep Impact. The idea is, send up a telescope and a probe, and slam the probe into a comet, and watch it with the telescope that is 300 miles away.
They had a 1 second launch window.
The one night launch that I recall of the shuttle was actually visible from my backyard. An orange streak, but, not bad for being 150 miles away.
I keep saying I'll get up there to see a launch one day -- its not like we don't send a new military satellite up every 6 weeks.
Very cool pictures!