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Mike Curie/STS-133 Launch Commentator: This is Shuttle Launch Control at T-3 hours and holding,

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with about one hour, 22 minutes and 50 seconds remaining in our hold today.

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Space shuttle Discovery -- the venerable veteran of America's human spaceflight fleet -- proudly resting atop

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Launch Pad 39A here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida,

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her wings outstretched and ready to soar to space for the 39th and final time.

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Discovery's odometer reads 142,917,535 miles.

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And Discovery is going to add about another 4 1/2 million miles to that total on this 11-day

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mission when it roars off the launch pad at 4:50 p.m.

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EST today and races to 17,500 miles an hour in about 8 1/2 minutes.

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Right after the launch tower is cleared today, Discovery will perform a roll maneuver,

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which points it precisely on the proper 51.6 
degree trajectory to catch up to the

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International Space Station, our target in orbit.

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At the time of liftoff, the space station will be about 220 miles above the South Pacific.

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And as the shuttle rockets to the northeast it will climb to 17,500 miles an hour to begin the chase.

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STS-133 is an 11-day mission to the station.

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It will deliver the Permanent Multipurpose Module,

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or the PMM, which was converted from the Leonardo multi-purpose logistics module, to withstand the harsh elements of space.

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The PMM will provide additional storage for the station and experiments that may also be conducted inside of it,

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such as fluid physics, material science, biology and biotechnology.

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Discovery also will carry critical space components to the station and Express Logistics Carrier 4,

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or ELC 4, which is an external platform that holds large equipment to be transported using the unique capability of the shuttle.

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Also, Robonaut 2, or R2, will become the first human-like robot in space when it flies inside

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the PMM to become a permanent resident of the station.

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The STS-133 mission will feature two 
spacewalks, conducted by (Steve) Bowen

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and (Alvin) Drew to do maintenance work and install new components on the station.

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Here inside the Launch Control Center, the countdown for Discovery's launch is continuing on schedule.

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The window opens at 4:45 p.m. today and 
our preferred and planned launch time is five minutes later at 4:50:27 p.m. Eastern time.