NASA opens its Apollo moon rock vault

HOUSTON, June 25 (UPI) -- The U.S. space agency is planning to open its moon rock vault and allow reporters a chance to conduct interviews with NASA moon rock scientists.

The laboratory vault contains the moon rocks Apollo astronauts collected during their six lunar missions. The July 2 interview opportunities at the Apollo Lunar Sample Processing Lab and Storage Vaults at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston will take place nearly 40 years after humans first walked on the moon.

The interviews, conducted using the NASA Television's Live Interview Media Outlet, will allow news organizations a chance to talk with scientists who study the lunar samples.

The public also will have an opportunity to take a virtual tour of the lunar sample lab and ask the scientists questions via Ustream and Twitter from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. EDT the same day.

The public can submit questions to Johnson's Twitter account @NASA_Johnson and via Ustream live during the event.

The tour and the question-and-answer session also will be broadcast live online by NASA TV.