MOSCOW, December 10 (RIA Novosti) - U.S. space shuttle Discovery is expected to dock with the world's sole orbital station December 12, the press secretary of the Russian Space Agency said Sunday.

Space shuttle Discovery blasted off from Cape Canaveral and started to head towards the International Space Station (ISS) December 10.

Igor Panarin said the time of docking will be specified and expressed the hope that the docking will take place in the nominal regime.

Panarin said the shuttle was carrying a large amount of cargoes for the ISS, including solar batteries to improve the orbital outpost's configuration for its further building.

"We hope all technical work during three planned spacewalks will be done to make the orbiter's configuration more stable and improve the station's capacity from the viewpoint of providing life support and carrying out research experiments," Panarin said.