March 31, 2009

Candrea Thomas Kennedy Space Center, Fla 321-867-2468 candrea k thomas@nasa gov

John Yembrick Headquarters, Washington 202-358-1100 john yembrick-1@nasa gov

RELEASE: 09-075

NASA'S SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS AT LAUNCH PAD FOR HUBBLE MISSION

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla -- After safely reaching its launch pad at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, space shuttle Atlantis now awaits liftoff for its target May 12 STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope

Atlantis arrived at Launch Pad 39A at approximately 9:10 a m EDT Tuesday on top of a giant crawler-transporter The crawler-transporter left Kennedy's Vehicle Assembly Building at 3:54 a m , traveling less than 1 mph during the 3 4-mile journey The shuttle was secured on the launch pad at 11:17 a m

Atlantis' 11-day mission is the final shuttle flight to Hubble During five spacewalks, the shuttle's seven astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and replace other Hubble components

The Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit that will be installed in the telescope arrived at Kennedy on Monday The new unit will replace the one in Hubble that stopped working in September 2008 and delayed the servicing mission

The result of the upgrades will be six working, complementary science instruments with capabilities beyond those now available and an extended operational lifespan of the telescope through at least 2014

Scott Altman will command Atlantis Gregory C Johnson will be the pilot The Mission Specialists will be John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Megan McArthur, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good

STS-125 is the 126th shuttle flight, the 30th flight for Atlantis and the fifth Hubble servicing mission

Space shuttle Endeavour is scheduled to roll out to Kennedy's other launch pad, 39B, on Thursday, April 17 Endeavour will be prepared for liftoff in the unlikely event that a rescue mission is necessary following Atlantis' launch After Atlantis is cleared to land, Endeavour will move to Launch Pad 39A for its upcoming STS-127 mission to the International Space Station, targeted to launch in mid-June

Endeavour will roll over from Kennedy's Orbiter Processing Facility 2 to the Vehicle Assembly Building on April 10 In the assembly building, crews will attach the spacecraft to its external fuel tank and twin solid rocket boosters in preparations for its move to pad 39B

NASA managers decided to proceed with the dual-pad approach after carefully reviewing the manifest options to complete the International Space Station and to ensure it is in the most robust condition possible following shuttle retirement

The dual-pad approach requires one month less processing time than the single-pad approach and will help complete both STS-125 and STS-127 Endeavour will deliver the Japanese Exposed Facility and make the space station more robust to support cargo delivery for a six-person crew

The Space Shuttle Program will continue to work with the Constellation Program to minimize the impact on the Ares I-X test flight which will use Launch Pad 39B later this year

For more information about the STS-125 mission and crew, visit:

http://www nasa gov/shuttle

For more information about the Hubble Space Telescope, visit:

http://www nasa gov/hubble

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www nasa gov/station

For more information about the Constellation Program, visit:

http://www nasa gov/constellation

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