Posted: Fri, Mar 27, 2009, 9:46 PM ET (0146 GMT)

NASA said Friday that the space shuttle Discovery was cleared to land Saturday, ending a mission that added a key component to the International Space Station. A final inspection of the shuttle's thermal protection system turned up no problems, so controllers gave the go-ahead for a reentry and landing Saturday at the Kennedy Space Center at 1:39 pm EDT (1739 GMT) Saturday. Weather is forecast to be favorable at the landing site. Discovery is wrapping up the STS-119 mission, which added the final set of solar panels to the station's truss and exchanged one member of the station's three-person crew.