NASA clears space shuttle for December 7 launch

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla, Nov 30 (Reuters) NASA cleared the space shuttle Discovery for launch from Florida on December 7 on a mission to continue construction of the International Space Station, a space agency official said yesterday.

The flight from the Kennedy Space Center will be the third and final shuttle mission of the year. NASA needs to fly 14 shuttle flights by 2010 to complete assembly of the half-built, 100 billion dollars space station.

REUTERS SBA BST0538