CAPE
CANAVERAL, Fla. - NASA's chances to launch the space shuttle Atlantis to the Hubble Space Telescope on Monday just got better.
Atlantis
and its crew of seven astronauts should have pristine weather conditions Monday
afternoon when
they blast off for Hubble at 2:01 p.m. EDT (1801 GMT) from a
seaside launch pad here at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The chances of good
weather on launch day jumped slightly to 90 percent, mission managers said
Sunday.
"Atlantis
is ready to fly," said Charlie Blackwell-Thompson, NASA's launch test director.
Commanded
by veteran shuttle astronaut Scott Altman, Atlantis is poised to fly an
11-day mission to Hubble to perform the fifth and final service call on the
19-year-old space telescope. NASA has also primed the shuttle Endeavour to serve
as a rescue ship if Atlantis is damaged beyond repair and its crew needs to
be rescued in space.
The astronauts
plan to perform
a five-spacewalk marathon to install two new cameras and repair two ailing
instruments that were never built to be fixed in space. They will also give
Hubble a much-needed maintenance overhaul to replace old batteries, broken
gyroscopes and other gear.
If all goes
well, the mission will extend Hubble's life through at least 2014. The flight
has been delayed since last fall when a part broke unexpectedly aboard Hubble. Altman
and his crew will replace that faulty part during their mission.
About the
only concerns on launch day are the slight chance of thick clouds nearby, which
could trigger lighting during liftoff, and possible rain showers at an
emergency landing strip in Spain. The landing strip is the only overseas runway
available if Atlantis has to make an emergency descent just after liftoff.
But NASA
shuttle weather officer Kathy Winters said Monday's outlook offers Atlantis the
best chance to fly. Thunderstorms are expected to hover around Atlantis' launch
site here on Tuesday and Wednesday.
"Right now,
day one does look good," Winters said.
Atlantis
has a 62-minute launch opportunity on Monday, longer than the typical 10-minute
windows for flights to the International Space Station because it is headed for
Hubble, NASA said.
NASA has
three tries to launch Atlantis, one each day through Wednesday, before standing
down due to a previously scheduled military operation at the nearby Cape
Canaveral Air Force Station. If Atlantis does not launch by May 13, NASA would
wait out the military operation and recharge
the new batteries for Hubble before trying again on May 22.
Today,
shuttle technicians are installing a pair of experiments in Atlantis' middeck
and plan to retract the shroud-like Rotating Service Structure that has
protected the spacecraft from weather at the launch pad.
"Things are
going extremely well," Blackwell-Thompson said.
SPACE.com
is providing continuous coverage of NASA's last mission to the Hubble Space
Telescope with senior editor Tariq Malik at Cape Canaveral and reporter Clara
Moskowitz in New York. Click
here for mission updates and SPACE.com's live NASA TV video feed.
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