Astronauts aboard the orbiting space shuttle Discovery have been given the all-clear to land in Florida on Monday.

Touchdown at the Kennedy Space Center's 4½ kilometre landing strip is planned for 9:14 a.m. EDT.

Mission control had been monitoring a nearby band of thunderstorms before giving the final clearance. NASA landing rules specify that rain must be at least 50 kilometres away, as rain and cloud debris could damage the shuttle's tiles.  

Last-minute inspections of the shuttle's landing systems, and particularly the crucial heat-absorbing tiles on its underbelly, have turned up no potential problems, say NASA scientists.

Re-entry is one of the most dangerous parts of a shuttle flight, with outside temperatures in the Earth-bound spacecraft reaching 1,650 C. The shuttle Columbia disintegrated during re-entry in February of 2003 over Texas, killing all seven crew members.

Discovery's current mission is only the second shuttle flight since that disaster. The wing damage on Columbia was caused when bits of foam broke away from an external fuel tank on lift-off, leaving cavities where hot air could leak in.

On the 13-day mission, Discovery astronauts carried out three spacewalks, delivered equipment and made repairs to the international space station.

The Kennedy Space Center was the only landing site NASA called up for the day. Diverting to Edwards Air Force base in California for landing would cost an additional $1.9 million US.

The space shuttle Atlantis and a crew of six are scheduled to depart for the space station on Aug. 28.

With files from the Associated Press