Bad weather postponed a NASA rocket launch early last week, but after a few days the rocket successfully launched and proved to be worth the wait.

The research rocket was launched from a U.S. Army installation in New Mexico, but residents in Arizona reported the real treat: a bright pink cloud was visible for 20 minutes as sunlight hit the vapor released from the rocket, Cammy Montoya, a spokeswoman for White Sands Missile Range, told the Associated Press.

The cloud was no accident — the rocket released vapor into the near-vacuum of space so that scientists could study processes responsible for the formation of the Earth's ionosphere.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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