NASA rocket streaks above the eastern U.S. [photos]

An Air Force Minotaur 1 rocket carrying support payload for Department of Defense’s Operationally Responsive Space Office’s ORS-3 mission launched at 8:15 p.m. eastern tonight from NASA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport Pad in Virginia. Experts estimated that the launch was visible from Savannah, Ga., to Montreal to central Ohio.

On the NASA’s Wallops Flight Facilities Facebook page, readers were asked to report where they were able to see the launch from. Andrew J Phillips said he could see it from LaGrangeville, N.Y.; Jason Trout he could see it clearly from Atlantic City, N.J.; Kathryn Barney saw it from East Longmeadow, Mass,; Shaun McNally Sr. watched it from Quakertown, Pa.; Brittany Lynn reported in from Cape May, N.J.

The NASA launch pad is getting more use, giving more Americans a view of soaring spacecraft that used to be limited to Florida and California.

Part of tonight’s payload included a small satellite that is being controlled by the guts of an off-the-shelf smartphone as NASA experiments with small, cheap, orbiting science projects.

If you have a photo of the rocket launch that you would like to share send it via email to atu@whyy.org