The US space agency NASA on Friday finalized the launch date of the space shuttle Discovery, after a meeting of the agency’s top officials. NASA stated that the two-week mission to the International Space Station, the space shuttle Discovery will be launched on March 11, Wednesday next week. 

NASA reported that the launch date was finalized after the engineers replaced some valves in the engine compartment of the shuttle. The agency asserted that the space shuttle Discovery will be launched at 9:20 p.m. EDT (0120 GMT on Thursday) from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Declaring the launch date at a press conference, the shuttle launch director Mike Leinbach said, "We're feeling really, really good. It's great to have a launch date."

NASA accounted that high level engineers and technicians conducted a deep study on the valves of the shuttle to determine whether the valves could crack and cause a fatal accident during the launch, and they reported that issues associated with valves were settled; they said that even if the valves crack, they wont be able to stop the shuttle from reaching to orbit.

The space shuttle Discovery, the STS-119 mission is a construction mission to the International Space Station, a $100 billion project of 16 nations that has been under construction for more than a decade. The space shuttle Discovery is NASA’s 125th shuttle mission, and the first of five planned for this year. Originally scheduled for Feb. 12 launch, the mission was delayed to resolve safety concerns with the shuttle’s fuel pressure valves.

NASA stated that the space shuttle Discovery will now deliver the final set of US made solar wing panels to the station. The flight will last for 14 days.

According to NASA, the International Space Station will be possibly completed next year, and after that the three-ship shuttle fleet will be retired. The shuttle program has played crucial role for nearly 30 years, and the new vehicles for traveling to moon and space station will debut in 2015.