Day 11.5: Beginning Hubble glass repair mission

On April 25, NASA's US Aeronautics and Space Administration made an official announcement on its website to fix the date of the shuttle Atlantis to the last access to the Hubble Space Telescope to maintain functioning. for this 19-year-old telescope.

Accordingly, Atlantis will be launched into space from the launch pad 39A of Kennedy Space Center, Florida State (USA) at 14 hours 1 minute on November 11 (local time). As planned earlier, Atlantis will depart a day earlier.

The Atlantis on the launch pad 39A, the farthest is the Endeavor on the launch pad 39B - Photo: Reuters

Currently the Atlantis crew has entered the final training session at Johnson Space Center, Houston (USA) to prepare for the upcoming difficult journey. Meanwhile, Atlantis has entered the launch pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center and is being inspected by NASA engineers to determine flight safety.

The last Hubble Space Telescope mission (Hubble Space Telescope) carries the STS-125 with seven astronauts: including commander Scott Altman, pilot Gregory Johnson and Michael Good astronauts, Megan McArthur (female), John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Andrew Feustel.

On an 11-day journey, the Atlantis astronauts will have five space walks to mount two new devices for Hubble glasses, re-operate some other parts . to help telescopes The name of the American astronomer Edwin Powell Hubble (1889-1953) could work at least until 2014.

Atlantis crew (from left): Captain Scott Altman, pilot Gregory Johnson and astronauts Michael Good, Megan McArthur, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino, Andrew Feustel - Photo: Reuters

Along with adjusting the Atlantis launch schedule, NASA also moved the shuttle launch day Endeavor to the International Space Station ISS to bring the final component to the Kibo lab worth about $ 3 billion made by Japan. Endeavor will be launched at 719 minutes on June 13 (local time), instead of the old launch schedule on May 15.

It is known that the Atlantis mission this time is NASA's second shuttle flight this year, Discovery's previous flight lasted 13 days at the end of March to bring solar panels to the station. Space.

As expected from now until mid-2010, apart from this Atlantis train flight, NASA will carry out seven more space shuttle missions to complete the construction of the space station; at the same time, to complete the mission of this shuttle fleet (currently including 3 Discovery, Atlantis, Endeavor).