Postcards from Atlantis’ Historic Hubble Mission

The launch of Atlantis from Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is viewed from behind Launch Pad 39B, where the space shuttle Endeavour stands ready for rescue duty.

Among the first group of still images downlinked from Atlantis was this high oblique scene looking toward the Red Sea, Sinai Peninsula and the Mediterranean Sea.

An STS-125 crew member snapped this photo of the Hubble Space Telescope after the shuttle’s Canadian-built remote manipulator arm grappled the giant observatory.

Astronaut Andrew Feustel, perched alone on the end of Atlantis’ remote manipulator system arm, participates in the first of five spacewalks to perform work on the Hubble.

Astronaut Michael Good is photographed from an aft flight deck window on Atlantis during the mission’s second session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as work continues to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble.

Astronaut John Grunsfeld participates in the mission’s third EVA session as work continues. Grunsfeld and Feustel (out of frame) spent more than six hours on the spacewalk.

With a mostly dark home planet behind him, Good rides the remote manipulator system arm to the exact position he needs to work on the Hubble on the mission’s fourth spacewalk.

Grunsfeld is positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis’ remote manipulator system and Feustel (bottom center) participate in the mission’s fifth and final spacewalk session on Flight Day 8.

A crew member aboard the Atlantis captured this still image of the Hubble as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation after having been linked together for the better part of a week.

Backdropped by the blackness of space and the thin line of Earth’s atmosphere, Atlantis’ payload bay, remote manipulator system robotic arm, vertical stabilizer and orbital maneuvering system pods on flight day 10.

Pilot Gregory C. Johnson uses the Portable In-Flight Landing Operations Trainer on the flight deck. PILOT consists of a laptop and a joystick system, which helps to maintain proficiency for the end-of-mission approach and landing tasks.

After a two-day delay due to bad weather in Florida, Atlantis landed safely at California’s Edwards Air Force Base. The almost 5.3-million-mile mission included five spacewalks to repair and upgrade the world-famous observatory.