The STS-120 astronauts arrived on Friday at the Shuttle Landing Facility runway at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Commander Pam Melroy and her six crewmates are scheduled to lift off at 11:38 a.m. EDT on the STS-120 mission to the International Space Station.

"There's something special about showing up in Florida," said Commander Pam Melroy. "There's a time when you need to talk, and the Flight Readiness Review was a time to talk. Then there's a time when you need to go do it. And I'm happy to say we're really here, and ready to go do it."

The seven- member crew will be carrying with it an Italian-built connector module to help link European and Japanese laboratory modules on the ISS.

The flight's mission specialists will be Scott E. Parazynski, Army Col. Douglas H. Wheelock, Stephanie D. Wilson and Paolo A. Nespoli, a European Space Agency astronaut from Italy. Zamka, Wheelock and Nespoli will be making their first spaceflight.

The 14-day Discovery mission includes five spacewalks – four by shuttle crew members and one by the station’s Expedition 16 crew. Discovery is expected to complete its mission and return home at 4:47 a.m. EST on Nov. 6.

Since its first flight in 1984, Discovery has completed more than 30 successful missions, surpassing the number of flights made by any other orbiter in NASA's fleet.

The space shuttle has undergone some major modifications over the years. The most recent began in 2002 and was the first carried out at Kennedy. It provided 99 upgrades and 88 special tests, including new changes to make it safer for flight.

Last week, NASA considered to delay the launch after an independent group of engineers raised concerns about microscopic cracks in three of the 44 heat shield panels that protect the wings from the extreme heat of atmospheric re-entry.

After a detailed technical review, NASA decided to stick to the October 23 as launch date. In a statement given after the arrival at Shuttle Landing Facility Pam Melroy said she and her crew are "totally confident" that Discovery's reinforced carbon-carbon heat shield is capable of protecting them on the ride home.

NASA is preparing another mission for this year. The space agency intends to launch on December 6 the STS-122 shuttle mission to deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station.