"The teams are ready and we are looking forward to an incredible mission (for the) space shuttle discovery and a safe and successfull landing," he said.

The countdown for the Thursday launch of Discovery's mission began at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 11 p.m. Monday (0400 GMT Tuesday), NASA said. No major weather problems are foreseen for the 10-minute launch window, with only a 30 percent chance of weather scuttling liftoff on Thursday, it added.

However, should there be a 24- or 48-hour delay, then the weather risk would increase to 60 percent.

"So, overall, the first day is the best day weather-wise," said Kathy Winters, the Shuttle weather officer. Strong winds cause a "lot of concern" to a 24-hour and 48-hour delay, she said.

NASA officials say the Discovery's 12-day mission to rewire the orbiting ISS in three spacewalks is its most complex to date.

Meanwhile, Russian news agencies reported Tuesday that an operation to raise the ISS' orbit to allow it to dock with Discovery was successfully completed.

The last operation to raise the station's orbit took place last week, but failed for an unknown reason.

The orbit's correction "was done with the help of the Progress M-58 cargo spacecraft," officials at Russian mission control said, quoted by Interfax.

As a result, the ISS' orbit was raised by 8.5 kilometers (3.3 miles), reaching the maximum altitude of 357 kilometers (222 miles).

The seven-member Discovery crew will include Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang of the European Space Agency, who will be making his first spaceflight.

The Thursday liftoff will be the third and final shuttle launch of the year and the fourth since the Columbia disaster in February 2003 that killed seven astronauts, grounding NASA's three shuttles for more than two years.

The three launches after the Columbia tragedy -- August 2005, and July and September this year -- were scheduled during daylight so that cameras on the ground and on the shuttle could take images of the spacecraft's exterior tank in case pieces of thermal insulation or ice might break off during liftoff.

It was a piece of insulating foam that damaged Columbia's heat-shield shortly after launch, causing the shuttle to disintegrate upon re-entry to Earth's atmosphere.

ISS Orbit Raised 5 Miles To Host US Shuttle
Moscow, Russia (RIA Novosti) Dec 06 - The International Space Station's orbit has been raised 8.5 kilometers (5 miles) to prepare for the docking of a U.S. space shuttle, a space agency official said Tuesday. Mission Control aborted an attempt to correct the station's orbit last Thursday, which was planned as part of preparations for the docking of the U.S. space shuttle Discovery and a Russian Progress M-59 cargo vehicle.

Before the malfunction, the cargo ship's engines had raised the ISS only one mile, instead of the desired five miles.

Corrections to the space station's orbit are conducted periodically before launches of Russian cargo ships and U.S. shuttles to compensate for Earth's gravity and to ensure successful dockings.

The Discovery is scheduled to lift off from Cape Canaveral December 7, and a Russian Progress M-59 cargo vehicle will be launched in January 2007.

The docking of Discovery is scheduled for 10:59 p.m. GMT December 9.

Related Links
Kennedy Space Center
Space Shuttle News at Space-Travel.Com

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