NASA’s much-delayed space shuttle Discovery will blast off on Thursday at 4:50 p.m. to deliver a human-like robot and a full load of supplies to the International Space Station (ISS).

A European freighter that was launched a few days back will be docking at the ISS on Thursday. NASA normally longer time span between arriving spacecrafts, but they want Discovery to blast off at the earliest because the space shuttle has already been delayed several times due to cracks in the shuttle’s external fuel tank.

The six astronauts to aboard Discover on its 39th and final voyage have already at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The astronaut crew will include shuttle commander Steve Lindsey, pilot Eric Boe and mission specialists Alvin Drew, Nicole Stott, Steve Bowen and Michael Barratt.

However, launch manager Mike Moses said if any problem is spotted in the fuel tank once it is filled, the launch would be suspended.

Speaking on the scheduled launch, launch director Mike Leinbach said, "People like to see it launch, the fruits of their labor, and that's what we'll get next Thursday."

NASA has plans to launch space shuttle Endeavour in April, and space shuttle Atlantis sometime during summer. After that NASA will retire its entire shuttle fleet, and will rely on Russian space shuttles to deliver astronauts and supplies to the ISS.