After nearly seven years of delays, NASA’s fifth and final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope lifted off from Cape Canaveral at 18:01 UTC.
The crew aboard space shuttle Atlantis mission STS-125 are scheduled to perform a series of five spacewalks beginning Thursday, giving the aging space kit an expected additional five years of quality peeping on the universe.
Once Atlantis returns planet-side, Endeavour will squeeze into pad 39A for mission STS-127 to the International Space Station, scheduled for a mid-June launch.