CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. – Space shuttle Discovery arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday, making its final visit before being parked at a museum.

“What took you guys so long?” asked the space station’s commander, Scott Kelly.

Discovery should have come and gone last November, but was grounded by fuel tank cracks. It blasted off Thursday with just two seconds to spare after being held up by a balky ground computer.

“Yeah, I don’t know, we kind of waited until like the last two seconds,” said shuttle commander Steven Lindsey.

The linkup occurred 220 miles above Australia.

Discovery will spend at least a week at the orbiting outpost. It’s carrying a closet-style chamber full of supplies as well as the first humanoid robot to fly in space.

The compartment will be attached permanently to the space station early this week.

Altogether, there are 12 people aboard the joined spacecraft, representing the United States, Russia and Italy. And in a historic first, four of the five major partners have vessels docked there right now, including cargo ships from Japan and Europe. The entire conglomeration has a mass of 1.2 million pounds.

The station is so packed with vehicles that it took longer than usual for Discovery to be tightly cinched down.

Just before pulling in, Discovery performed a slow, 360-degree backflip so space station cameras could capture any signs of launch damage. At least four pieces of debris broke off the fuel tank during liftoff, and one of the strips of insulating foam struck Discovery’s belly.

NASA managers do not believe the shuttle was damaged. The digital pictures snapped by two space station residents should confirm that; experts on the ground will spend the next day or two poring over them.

Every shuttle crew since the 2003 Columbia disaster has had to check for possible damage to the thermal shielding, which must be robust for re-entering Earth’s atmosphere.