Two asteroids will pass within the moon's distance from Earth on Wednesday, Sept. 8. NASA scientists will be available for satellite interviews Tuesday, Sept. 7, and Wednesday morning to discuss these near- Earth objects.

NASA's pioneering use of prize competitions and innovation challenges is a dramatic departure from government's traditional "business as usual."

To see what life might be like on a distant planet, reporters need only travel to the Arizona desert.

Mounted atop a specialized transporter, space shuttle Discovery is all set for a short drive Wednesday morning to the Vehicle Assembly Building where it will be joined to a waiting set of two solid rocket boosters and a fuel tank. The move, known as "rollover" to the NASA Kennedy Space Center community of space workers, is slated to begin at 6:30 a.m. when Discovery is carefully backed out of Orbiter Processing Facility-3. The 76-wheeled transport will then truck the spacecraft across a wide, concrete road and into the VAB, where a skilled team of technicians will bolt a huge sling to the orbiter so it can be safely lifted and joined to the boosters and tank.

While their spacecraft undergoes preparations in Florida, the astronauts who will fly Discovery to the International Space Station will be practicing for their arrival in space. Training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, the crew will conduct a suited post-insertion simulation today.

At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, technicians are preparing the external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters for space shuttle Discovery's arrival and connection next week. The tank and boosters are already stacked on the mobile launcher platform. Rollover of Discovery is set to begin at 6:30 am. EDT on Sept. 8. There is no work planned over the Labor Day holiday weekend.

At NASA's Johnson Space Center, the STS-133 crew is conducting a rendezvous simulation today.‪

Space shuttle Discovery has been connected to its 76-wheel, custom-built transporter ahead of its move from Orbiter Processing Facility-3 to the Vehicle Assembly Building. That move is scheduled to take place Sept. 8. The transporter is one of several specialized vehicles that serve the shuttle fleet at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Some move payloads and solid rocket booster segments, this one moves the 100-ton orbiters. The kings are, of course, the huge, tracked crawler-transporters that carry a stacked shuttle to the launch pad. One thing they all have in common: they move really slowly, especially when carrying precious national assets on their backs.

In the VAB, the 52-story-tall landmark building at Kennedy, the external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters have been assembled on the mobile launch platform and are waiting for Discovery's arrival to complete the stack.

The astronauts who will fly Discovery to the International Space Station on the upcoming STS-133 mission are also at Kennedy today for a Crew Equipment Interface Test, known as the CEIT. They will check out the Permanent Multipurpose Module and the Express Logistics Carrier that will carry critical spare parts to the International Space Station.