William Atkins
Sunday, 10 May 2009 18:49
Science -
Space
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NASA managers signed off on Saturday, May 9, 2009, that the space shuttle Atlantis is ready to be launched on Monday, May 11th for its space mission to service and repair the Hubble Space Telescope for the fifth and final time.
Saturday’s meeting gave the official ok to launch
Atlantis and its crew to the Hubble Space Telescope.
The
NASA meeting also gave approval for the space shuttle
Endeavour, which is ready to be launched in case
Atlantis, and its
STS-400 mission, has problems in space far from the safety of the International Space Station.
More information on the STS-400 if-needed emergency (launch-on-need) mission is found on the April 30, 2009 NASAspaceflight.com article “
NASA approves May 11 for STS-125, reviews ‘Special Topics’ for STS-400.”
Launch of the STS-125 mission is set for 2:01 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), 1801 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) on the eleventh of May. You can watch liftoff at
NASA TV.
The mission is also called
HST-SM4 by NASA, or Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4. (The previous missions were called SM1, SM2, SM3A, and SM3B.)
NASA weather forecasters are predicting that the weather will most likely cooperate for Monday’s liftoff from the Kennedy Space Center in east-central Florida. There is an 80% chance for acceptable weather on the day of launch.
Weather.com predicts only a 20% chance of rain on Monday for the Cape Canaveral area, with mostly sunny weather and a high of 90 degrees Fahrenheit and a low of 72.
Ed Weiler, the associate administrator for NASA, stated,
“... to say we got our money’s worth out of Hubble is an understatement.” [Reuters: “
NASA clears shuttle for flight to Hubble”]
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