CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Discovery is scheduled to roll out to Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Fla., on Saturday, Sept. 29, as preparations for the STS-120 mission move forward. Discovery is targeted to lift off Oct. 23 on a 14-day mission to the International Space Station.

The first motion of the shuttle out of Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building is planned at 8 p.m. EDT. The 3.4-mile journey to the launch pad is expected to take about six hours.

NASA Television will provide a live picture of Discovery at the launch pad beginning at 7 a.m. Sunday. Video highlights of the rollout will air on NASA TV's Video File segments.

In the predawn hours this morning, the payload canister for mission STS-120 arrived at Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The Italian-built U.S. Harmony module destined for the International Space Center will be transferred to Discovery's payload bay once the space shuttle reaches the pad.

Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building, Discovery's processing continues. Earlier in the week, the orbiter was attached to the external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters atop the mobile launch platform.

http://www.amsat.org/amsat/archive/sarex/48hour/msg01087.html

DALLAS -- Richard Garriott is perhaps best known as the legendary designer of video games like "Ultima" and the upcoming "Tabula Rasa." But growing up as the son of NASA astronaut Owen Garriott meant he had always wanted to go beyond games and follow in his father's footsteps.

Garriott will finally get his chance next year. On Friday, Space Adventures Ltd. announced that Garriott would be paying $30 million of his own money for a mission to the international space station in October 2008.

"My dad was an astronaut so I grew up believing that space was going to be available for everyone at some point in the future," Garriott said from Austin in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. "But I realized that the NASA method was a statistical improbability. If I was going to get a chance to go myself, it would have to be through private space travel."