Discovery space shuttle to make final flight

It is scheduled for lift-off at 9.50pm GMT - the final flight for the world's most travelled rocket ship as the shuttle programme draws to a close after 30 years.

Six astronauts will ride Discovery up to the International Space Station to deliver supplies and drop off the robot Robonaut, which will become the first humanoid in space.

Discovery has flown to space more than any other craft in the Nasa fleet and clocked up 150 million miles.

It has circled the earth more than 5,000 times, travelling at speeds of 17,400 miles an hour.

The shuttle programme, launched in 1981, has not been without disaster.

In 1986 the Challenger blew up shortly after take-off and in February 2003 the world mourned again when the shuttle Colombia broke up on re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.

Two more shuttles are scheduled to make their final flights this year before the programme is retired. 

The Endeavour is due to go up in April with Commander Mark Kelly at the helm.

His wife, congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, one of the Tucson shooting victims, is due to be in Florida to watch the mission as she recovers from her injuries.

Atlantis will be the final launch slated for a June lift off - although Congress has not yet approved the money for it.

Then for the first time in nearly 60 years, the United States will have no government-owned rocket ready to launch.