Why is it that Russia is taking the lead on this? Very bad form by the US science community IMHO. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_russia_asteroid_encounter
It sounds like this is going to require a multinational effort but the Russians are doing all of the planning. That's not a good thing. It looks like some people are more concerned with their own personal prestige than ensuring a successful mission.
Even though the chances that this asteroid will hit the Earth are remote we will eventually will be hit by one and this would be a good opportunity to establish a procedure to avert such a disaster in the future. I read that there are approx 6000 celestial objects that are headed to our vicinity but we have only been able to track 1000 of them.