NASA’s officials announced their decision to delay the launch of the space shuttle Discovery by at least a week, as there are several strong concerns about a flow control valve in the shuttle's main engines.

"The valve is one of three that channels gaseous hydrogen from the engines to the external fuel tank. One of these valves in shuttle Endeavour was found to be damaged after its mission in November. As a precaution, Discovery's valves were removed, inspected and reinstalled," NASA explained Tuesday night in a statement which was posted on its official Web site.

The launch, which was supposed to start the STS - 119 mission to the International Space Center and which was scheduled to take place on February 12, will take place on February 19, if everything checks out fine. This will be the shuttle's 28th mission to the space center and it will carry a new crewmember and also solar panels.

The station demanded an investment of more than $100 billion and the combined efforts of 16 nations. The project begun 10 years ago and it is scheduled for completion next year. The process was difficult and the agencies involved had to overcome many setbacks in order to reach today’s state. The station has helped with numerous projects and research sessions and it is expected to continue even after 2015, when NASA announced that it will start focusing on other projects. As expected, the other members expressed their wish to continue using the station after NASA steps down.