CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – The word here at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) Press Site is that Vice President Dick Cheney and his wife Lynne will be in attendance Saturday when the space shuttle Discovery launches its STS-121 astronaut crew spaceward.

“The Vice President and Mrs. Cheney are thrilled to be attending NASA’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery this Saturday,” Jennifer Mayfield, a spokesperson for the Vice President’s press office, told me tonight via telephone.

Mayfield said Vice President Cheney and his wife were invited to NASA’s STS-121 launch and the upcoming Pepsi 400 NASCAR race in Daytona Beach.

The First Lady, Laura Bush, attended last year’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery during NASA’s STS-114 return to flight mission. President George W. Bush later spoke with Discovery’s seven-astronaut crew, commanded by the now-retired veteran shuttle commander Eileen Collins, and the Expedition 11 crew aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

NASA’s STS-121 mission is the space agency’s second orbiter flight since the 2003 Columbia accident.

The mission is set to launch on July 1 at 3:49 p.m. EDT (1949 GMT).