Hey, East Coast, You Can Watch a Rocket Launch to the Moon Tonight

And here's where you should go to see it.

We're going to the moon. Well, we're going to orbit the moon.

Friday night at 11:27, NASA plans to launch the LADEE (pronounced lad-ee) lunar orbiter, which will collect dust — literally — as it circles the moon and studies the lunar atmosphere. The launch will be NASA's first from its flight facility on Wallops Island off the Virginia coast, which means that most of the East Coast will be able to see it ascend into the cosmos.

Knowing that space launches are awesome, Orbital (the company that manufactured the rocket) has created these guides showing where you can watch the LADEE fly.

A huge swath of the East Coast will be able to see it.

But there might not be a better place to watch the launch than here in Washington on the National Mall.

For a more symbolic location of the advancements in human ingenuity, you could also travel to the site of the first flight in North Carolina.

Vacationing on the Jersey Shore or Cape Cod? Yup, you can watch it there, too.

In New York City, you may have to stand atop a skyscraper, but you can see it as well.