Cryptic Studios has released a decent bit of information about the pre-order, beta, and other launch information. Here is a list of important dates from now until City of Heroes launches (taken directly from the official website):

   As you can see there are a lot of things in store for City of Heroes. It appears to be fairly advantageous to pre-order, so if you are very adamant about City of Heroes, now would be a good time to put in a pre-order. The game's production appears to be moving along very smoothly. Just think, in less then two months City of Heroes will hit the shelves!

Read the official article here: http://www.coh.com/po_beta_status.html