In celebration of the space shuttle and in the spirit of our upcoming documentary, we’re collecting your best shuttle home movies. Share them on the Motherboard here

Early this morning, the Space Shuttle, NASA’s soon-to-be-retired veteran spacecraft, made its last pre-dawn launch. Why is that special? Because there is absolutely nothing like seeing a pair of rockets carry six humans into space aboard one of the most complex machines ever built (never mind that its computer runs on 1 MB of RAM). It’s a billion-dollar fireworks show that literally turns night into day.

This was actually the second “last night launch,” the first being in early Feburary. That was when Motherboard traveled to the Kennedy Space Center and environs to capture the excitement surrounding the launch of Space Shuttle Endeavor, which delivered a bay window to the nearly-complete space station. Our documentary will be out this Wednesday.

Space Shuttle Discovery was originally scheduled to go up during the day, but due to a delay, it was rescheduled for a pre-dawn launch, at 6:21 AM this morning. There are only three shuttle missions, and launches, remaining.

Before the shuttle is retired, leaving the space station dependent on smaller, less capable Russian, Japanese and European cargo craft, NASA is stocking the station with as much gear as possible. Discovery’s crew, which includes three women, is delivering 10 tons of science equipment and supplies, including ammonia coolant, experiment hardware, an astronaut sleep station, an experiment sample freezer and a darkroom-like camera enclosure for the Destiny module’s Earth-facing window.

This will be the 131st mission for a vehicle that was first intended to fly a thousand missions. But after the destruction of Columbia in 2003, officials decided the system would be replaced by the Constellation program. But per the Obama Administration’s proposed budget, that is also being scrapped. This wasn’t just the last planned night launch of the Space Shuttle — it was the last planned night time launch of any American manned spacecraft, period..

That is, until commercial space craft take over. But no launch of the Falcon 9 or any other planned commercial spaceship is going to be nearly as glorious as seeing this bad boy pierce the sky, especially at night.