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STS-125: The mission

A detailed step-by-step preview of space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to extend the life and vision of the Hubble Space Telescope.

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STS-125: The EVAs

The lead spacewalk officer provides indepth explanations of the five EVAs to service Hubble during Atlantis' flight.

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STS-125: The crew

The seven shuttle Atlantis astronauts hold a press conference one month before their planned launch to Hubble.

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STS-125: NASA leaders

The leaders of NASA's Space Operations and Science directorates give their insights into the upcoming shuttle mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

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STS-125: Shuttle boss

The head of NASA's space shuttle program discusses the risks and plans for Atlantis' trek to Hubble.

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The Hubble program

An overview of the Hubble Space Telescope program and the planning that has gone into the final servicing mission.

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Hubble's future science

The new instruments to be installed into Hubble and the future science objectives for the observatory are previewed.

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Meet the Hubble crew

Meet the crew launching on Atlantis' STS-125 mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope and learn how each became an astronaut in this special biography movie.

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Astronauts test re-entry systems for Friday landing
BY WILLIAM HARWOOD
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS "SPACE PLACE" & USED WITH PERMISSION
Posted: May 21, 2009

The Atlantis astronauts tested the shuttle's re-entry systems early Thursday and began packing for landing Friday, weather permitting, to close out a successful mission to overhaul the Hubble Space Telescope. The flight plan calls for a de-orbit rocket firing at 8:49:16 a.m. Friday, setting up a landing on runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center at 10:00:31 a.m. A second landing opportunity is available one orbit later, at 11:39:18 a.m.


The Atlantis' crew in-orbit portrait taken Wednesday. Credit: NASA
 
With no major technical problems in orbit, the only question mark is the weather, with forecasters predicting a broken cloud deck at 4,000 feet, crosswinds above 15 knots and a chance of thundershowers within 30 nautical miles of the runway, all violations of NASA's landing weather flight rules.

High winds and torrential rains rumbled through the area overnight as severe thunderstorms lashed Florida's Space Coast. There is a 50 percent chance of heavy rain, high winds and thundershowers all day Thursday and more of the same expected overnight and Friday.

But the astronauts have conserved power and now have saved enough hydrogen and oxygen to power the ship's electricity producing fuel cells through Monday. As a result, NASA is not staffing backup landing sites Friday. If the weather or some other issue blocks the two available landing opportunities, the crew will stay in orbit an extra day and try again Saturday.

Hoping for the best, commander Scott Altman, pilot Gregory C. Johnson and flight engineer Megan McArthur tested Atlantis' re-entry systems, firing up a hydraulic power unit, exercising the orbiter's aerosurfaces and test-firing the ship's small maneuvering thrusters. There were no problems.

The crew plans to take a call from Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-MD, at 12:31 p.m. to discuss the crew's overhaul of the space telescope. Mikulski, a long-time Hubble booster, represents the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, MD, and the Space Telescope Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

Later in the day, starting at 2:41 p.m., the astronauts will participate in round-robin interviews with CBS News and other networks.

Today's mission status briefing with entry flight director Norm Knight is scheduled for 3:15 p.m., although it may be moved up to 1 p.m. The astronauts plan to go to bed at 6:01 p.m. and to get up Friday at 2:01 a.m. to begin landing preparations.

Here is an updated timeline of today's activity (in EDT and mission elapsed time; includes revision J of the NASA television schedule):


EDT........DD...HH...MM...EVENT

05/21/09
03:01 AM...09...13...00...Crew wakeup
06:01 AM...09...16...00...Cabin stow begins
06:11 AM...09...16...10...Flight control system checkout
07:21 AM...09...17...20...RCS hotfire
07:36 AM...09...17...35...Entry video setup
07:56 AM...09...17...55...PILOT landing practice
09:41 AM...09...19...40...Joint crew meal
09:51 AM...09...19...50...Deorbit review
10:41 AM...09...20...40...Cabin stow resumes
11:51 AM...09...21...50...L-1 comm check
12:31 PM...09...22...30...PAO event with Sen. Barbara Mikulski
12:51 PM...09...22...50...Crew photo
01:00 PM...09...22...59...Mission status briefing (presumed)
02:21 PM...10...00...20...Wing leading edge sensor system deactivation
02:21 PM...10...00...20...PGSC stow (part 1)
02:41 PM...10...00...40...CBS,ABC,NBC,FOX,CNN crew interviews
03:06 PM...10...01...05...Ergometer stow
03:06 PM...10...01...05...KU antenna stow
04:00 PM...10...01...59...LRO/LCROS lunar mission briefing on NTV
06:01 PM...10...04...00...Crew sleep begins
07:00 PM...10...04...59...Daily highlights reel on NTV

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