20091776 Club
Atlantis lifts off for Hubble's fifth and final servicing call
Seven astronauts, including John Grunsfeld on his third Hubble visit, carry two new instruments to an observatory NASA once considered too dangerous to save.
On May 11, 2009, at 2:01 pm EDT, Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from Kennedy Space Center on STS-125 — the fifth and final mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The seven-member crew, including astronomer John Grunsfeld making his third Hubble visit, carried two new instruments and a full suite of replacement hardware to an observatory that NASA had once written off as too dangerous to save. Thirteen days later, Hubble emerged more capable than at any point since its 1990 launch…
