Top NASA and contractor managers assessed the risks associated with the STS-125 mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope during Thursday's executive-level Flight Readiness Review at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and determined the shuttle's equipment, support systems and procedures are ready for flight.
"We had a very thorough review today," said Bill Gerstenmaier associate administrator for Space Operations, "and we set the launch date for May 11 at 2:01 p.m. Eastern Time.
"The teams are ready to go do what they need to do, and the vehicles look like they are in good shape." Gerstenmaier concluded.
Space Shuttle Program Manager John Shannon echoed that assessment of the meeting, saying it was a "very smooth FRR… could not have gone any smoother. There were no dissenting opinions and no real big discussion topics that we had lengthy debate about."
STS-125 Astronauts Inspect Payload for Hubble Mission
Veteran astronaut Scott Altman will command the final space shuttle mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists rounding out the crew are: veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur.
During the 11-day mission's five spacewalks, astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning into at least 2014.
In addition to the originally scheduled work, Atlantis also will carry a replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit for Hubble. Astronauts will install the unit on the telescope, removing the one that stopped working on Sept. 27, 2008, delaying the servicing mission until the replacement was ready.
