May 11 2009
From The Space Library
Space Shuttle Atlantis launched at 2:10 p.m. (EDT) from NASA’s KSC . The seven-member crew was on the final servicing mission for the HST. STS-125, also known as Servicing Mission 4, comprised Commander Scott D. Altman, Pilot Gregory C. Johnson, and Mission Specialists K. Megan McArthur, John M. Grunsfeld, Michael J. Massimino, Andrew J. Feustel, and Michael T. Good. The mission plan called for the crew to make five spacewalks, to replace gyroscopes and batteries, as well as the Wide Field Camera 2, which had captured most of the images of deep space that had made HST famous. The crew would also attempt repairs of the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and of a spectroscope that breaks down the light of stars. Because NASA had not designed those instruments with the intention of repairing them, NASA was uncertain that the repairs would succeed. NASA had developed 116 tools specifically for Servicing Mission 4. HST was located in an orbit 375 miles (603.5 kilometers) above Earth, in a region containing large amounts of space junk. NASA had placed Space Shuttle Endeavour on the launchpad in preparation for a rescue mission, in the event Atlantis sustained damage.
NASA, “NASA’s Shuttle Atlantis Launches on a Final Mission to Hubble,” news release 09-104, 11 May 2009, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2009/may/HQ_09-104_Atlantis_launches.html (accessed 20 June 2011); John Johnson Jr., “Atlantis Blasts Off for Final Hubble Mission,” Los Angeles Times, 12 May 2009.
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