Mission officials said at a press briefing Sunday they saw no likely technical hurdles to takeoff August 25 at 0136 am (0536 GMT) from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The weather also was looking up with about 80 percent chance of launch-friendly meteorological conditions compared to the 70 percent favorable forecast on Friday, said meteorologist Kathy Winters.

Still there was still a risk of thunderstorms and lightning within an eight-kilometer (five-mile) range of the launchpad where the shuttle's external fuel tank is supposed to start being filled with nearly two million liters of liquid hydrogen and oxygen shortly after 2000 GMT Monday, she added.

"Obviously, the weather is going to be one of our challenges" for filling the fuel tank, said Mike Moses, director of the Mission Management Team.

If the fill-up were delayed more than three hours, the launch would be postponed Tuesday and delayed by 24 hours, he said.

But Kathy Winters noted that the storm possibilities looked to be their worst in the first hour of the scheduled tank filling.

Nonetheless, launch director Pete Nickolenko said there were four launch attempts available within five days from August 25-30, and that he was "96 percent certain" of being able to launch in that window.

The shuttle is to deliver equipment for a new bedroom, a treadmill, a freezer, food and other supplies. It will also be dropping off the newest member of the ISS team -- US astronaut Nicole Stott.

Stott will be taking over from engineer and fellow American Tim Kopra, who has been aboard the ISS since July and is returning to Earth with the Discovery.

The Discovery crew, led by astronaut Rick Sturckow, will be delivering 6.8 tonnes of cargo transported in a pressurized module called Leonardo that was built by the Italian space agency.

Two astronauts from the team are scheduled to conduct three spacewalks of six and a half hours each during the 13-day mission, which is the fourth of five planned for the shuttle this year. The last is scheduled for November.

One of the key goals of the space walks is the replacement of an old liquid ammonia tank, which will be substituted with a new 800 kilogram replacement brought from Earth aboard the Discovery. The substance is used as a coolant.

The astronauts will also be retrieving experiment equipment from the outside of the ISS and returning it to Earth for processing.

The new freezer will store samples of blood, urine and other materials that will eventually be taken back to Earth for study on the effects of zero-gravity.

The COLBERT treadmill, named after popular US comedy talkshow host Stephen Colbert, will be the second aboard the ISS. Exercise is key for astronauts spending long periods of time in space, where zero-gravity can result in muscle atrophy.

The mission will be the 128th for the space shuttle program, and the 30th mission to the ISS.

Once the Discovery mission is complete, just six more shuttle flights remain before NASA's three shuttles are retired in September 2010.

The International Space Station is a project jointly run by 16 countries at a cost of 100 billion dollars -- largely financed by the United States.

The seven-person crew of the US space shuttle Discovery, scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday, is a mix of space flight veterans and first-timers, and includes a Swede and a female US astronaut.

- Rick Sturckow, 49, is leading the mission. A colonel in the US Marine Corps, he flew 41 combat missions during the first Gulf War in 1991. He has logged 4,790 flight hours on 50 different types of aircraft and began training with NASA in 1995. A space mission veteran, he has been into orbit three times before, including aboard the Endeavour space shuttle in December 1998 on the first mission to build the International Space Station. Sturckow is married with two children.

- Kevin Ford, 49, is the shuttle's co-pilot for the mission. A retired US Air Force colonel, Ford will be going into space for the first time aboard the Discovery mission. He is the recipient of a PhD in Astronautical Engineering and is a test pilot and instructor for F-15 and F-16 jets. He has logged 4,300 flight hours and is certified by the Federal Aviation Administration to fly planes, helicopters and gliders. He was selected by NASA to become a pilot in July 2000, and began training a month later. Ford is married with two children.

- Patrick Forrester, 52, is a mission specialist. A retired US Army colonel, he has been into space twice before -- aboard the Discovery in 2001 and the Atlantis in 2007. A mechanical and aerospatial engineer and a test pilot, Forrester has logged more than 4,400 flight hours in 50 different aircraft. He joined NASA in 1993, and completed four space walks during his two previous shuttle missions. He is married and has two children.

- Jose Hernandez, 47, is a mission specialist. Hernandez's parents emigrated to California, where he was born. An electrical engineer by training, Hernandez will be on his first space mission aboard the Discovery. He worked at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory for 14 years before joining NASA in 2001. He first served as a research engineer and was then selected in May 2004 to begin training to become an astronaut. He has NASA's first bilingual Twitter feed (@Astro Jose) and is married with five children.

- John Olivas, 43, is a mission specialist. He is the recipient of a PhD in mechanical engineering and the veteran of a previous space mission aboard the shuttle Atlantis in June 2007. After working for the American chemical group Dow Chemical, he joined NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory to do research. He was selected in 1998 to begin training to become an astronaut and worked in the robotics branch of the space agency. During his Atlantis mission, Olivas conducted two space walks lasting 14 hours in total. He is married with five children.

- Christer Fuglesang, 52, is a Swedish member of the European Space Agency (ESA) and will serve as a mission specialist aboard the Discovery. He holds a PhD in experimental particle physics and has worked at the European Research Center on Particle Physics. In 1992, he was selected to join ESA for astronaut training. He has also trained with the Russian space agency. In 1996, he joined NASA to become a mission specialist, and he was a member of the crew that travelled to the International Space Station aboard the Discovery in 2006. During that mission he completed three space walks of 18 hours in total. Fuglesang is married with three children.

- Nicole Stott, 46, is a mission specialist and the only female astronaut aboard the shuttle mission. She is an aeronautical engineer by training and will be going into space for the first time aboard the Discovery. She is scheduled to join the ISS team, which numbers six members, replacing US astronaut Tim Kopra, who joined the ISS team on July 15 and will be returning to Earth with the Discovery on August 6. Stott began her career with Pratt and Whitney Government Engines before joining NASA as an engineer in 1988. She was selected in 2000 to become an astronaut. Stott is married with one child. Share This Article With Planet Earth

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