This is another unusual perspective of a space vessel in flight, though slightly less rare than the top-down image posted here on 28 November. We’re looking up at a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, taking off from Cape Canaveral to put a Department of Defense Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) in orbit. That’s a device designed to send very focused beams of infrared light back and forth in order to communicate with the Earth’s surface, transferring more data than the radio waves we use nowadays. The LCRD is riding into space here along with the NASA-U.S. Naval Research Laboratory Ultraviolet Spectro-Coronagraph (UVSC) Pathfinder, a space device built to help sense solar storms (or coronal mass ejections) before they happen.
I found it in NASA’s Image of the Day gallery.