In Pictures: Space Shuttle Atlantis Lift Off May 11th

Published by djmick on May 13th, 2009

space shuttle atlantis

Twelve spectacular images of the Space Shuttle Atlantis as it lifts off from Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 11, 2009.

Atlantis is on an 11-day mission to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Here are some highlights of the mission:

* This is the fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope, which was deployed on April 25, 1990. This call is expected to extend its life through at least 2014.

* Five spacewalks are scheduled, lasting up to seven hours each, to install new instruments and thermal blankets, repair two existing instruments, replace the telescope’s six positioning gyroscopes, replace six batteries and change out a failed science data processing computer that stores and transmits information to Earth.

* Astronauts will install a docking ring so that a future spacecraft, mostly likely robotic, can link up with the observatory and guide it towards a safe re-entry into the ocean at the end of its lifetime.

* Astronauts plan to install the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph, which can break light into its component wavelengths for chemical analysis, and a new wide-field camera that should give Hubble a view of the universe spanning 13.2 billion years, back to about 500 million years after the Big Bang.

* Spacewalking astronauts will attempt repairs of a second camera, as well as the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, which stopped working because of power and electronics failures. They will also install a stainless steel blanket on the telescope’s exterior to provide added thermal protection.

SOURCE: NASA

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