After a smooth countdown and picture-perfect liftoff, space shuttle Atlantis and a crew of seven astronauts are in space, ready to begin their 11-day mission to service NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis lifted off Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 2:01 p.m. EDT.
ANSWER: No, Hubble cannot take photos of the Apollo landing sites.
An object on the Moon 4 meters (4.37 yards) across, viewed from HST, would be about 0.002 arcsec in size. The highest resolution instrument currently on HST is the Advanced Camera for Surveys at 0.03 arcsec. So anything we left on the Moon cannot be resolved in any HST image. It would just appear as a dot.
Space shuttle Atlantis is carrying a basketball that belonged to Edwin Hubble, the astronomer the Hubble Space Telescope was named after.
The basketball will be reshaped while in orbit and passed around to crewmates during a light-hearted fun filled photo-op.
Under a dry, hot, cloud-washed Florida sky, space shuttle Atlantis roars off Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida with its crew of seven for a rendezvous with NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. The launch was on time at 2:01 p.m. EDT. Atlantis’ 11-day flight will include five spacewalks to refurbish and upgrade the telescope with state-of-the-art science instruments that will expand Hubble’s capabilities and extend its operational lifespan through at least 2014. The payload includes the Wide Field Camera 3, fine guidance sensor and the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph.
(Above) On Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Final Inspection Team personnel double-check buildup of ice on space shuttle Atlantis’ liquid hydrogen umbilical.
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Blast Off is at 2:01 p.m. EDT – May 11, 2009
STS-125 FAST FACTS
Orbiter: Atlantis
Mission Number: STS-125
(126th space shuttle flight)
Launch Target: 2:01 p.m. EDT – May 11, 2009
Launch Window: Approximately 40 minutes
Launch Pad: 39A
Mission Duration: 11 days
Landing Site: KSC
Inclination/Altitude: 28.5 degrees/304 nautical miles
Primary Payload: Hubble Space Telescope Servicing Mission 4
All joking aside, this is a photo of the Hubble SM4 flight crew with Goddard’s fantastic team of engineers and technicians. The SM4 will be the last Hubble servicing mission and the last time two Space Shuttles (Atlantis & Endeavour) will be on the launch pad at the same time.
Over the course of five spacewalks, astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones, and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning at least into 2014.