Stay Up Late Tonight to Watch The Last Nighttime Shuttle Launch Ever

If you live anywhere on the East Coast and are at all interested in cool stuff that happens in the sky, you’d be remiss not to stay up late tonight to watch for the last ever nighttime shuttle launch.

Or you could wake up early, that works too. Either way, at 4:39 A.M. early tomorrow morning NASA will launch the Endeavor space shuttle, and it will be the last time it does so at night.

On its way up to the International Space Station, the shuttle will fly parallel to America’s eastern seaboard and the shuttle’s rockets will thus be visible to a surprisingly huge area, weather permitting. Here’s a map of where the rocket will be in the first ten minutes after launch and what areas of the country will be able to see it:

I told you it was a surprisingly huge area! To find out more about what you’re looking for and where exactly you should be looking for it, check out Space.com’s comprehensive rundown of the late night launch. [Space.com]

Written by: Kyle VanHemert