CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., May 25 (UPI) -- NASA has cleared shuttle Discovery and seven astronauts for blastoff on Thursday to deliver supplies to the new International Space Station. The Kennedy Space Center's shuttle operations director David King said, ``We're looking forward to ... getting back into the flight business again'' after an unplanned six-month launch hiatus. Launch is expected at 6:48 a.m. EDT. Meteorologists are predicting an 80 percent chance weather conditions will be acceptable for launch. The shuttle is loaded with about 2 tons of equipment and supplies for the new space station, including spare parts, repair kits, tools, space suits, medical gear, clothing and sleeping bags. The astronauts also plan to install the first part of a Russian-built crane that will help future station construction teams. Another U.S.-built crane will be stowed inside the station for installation later. NASA's unexpected gap in shuttle missions was largely due to Russian delays building a key component for the new station. The so-called Service Module is now scheduled to be launched in November, with another U.S. shuttle supply mission to follow in December. Next month, NASA, Russia and the other space station program partners plan to decide when the first live-aboard crew will be flown to the station. Also contributing to shuttle launch delays is an investigation by the Air Force into a series of Titan 4 rocket failures. An X-ray telescope to be launched by NASA on the space shuttle uses the same upper-stage booster that failed to deliver two military satellites to their proper orbits. NASA is targeting the launch of the Chandra Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility for July 22, but it could fly as late as mid- August without significantly affecting the shuttle's manifest, said space shuttle program manager Ron Dittemore.  