Atlantis and Crew Set for Launch to Hubble

At NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, valves are open and about 500,000 gallons of chilled liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen are flowing into space shuttle Atlantis' external fuel tank at Launch Pad 39A. The "tanking" process, as it is known, began at 4:41 a.m. EDT after the Mission Management Team gave the go-ahead to proceed. Liftoff remains on schedule for 2:01 p.m. EDT. The launch weather forecast remains 90 percent favorable.

Veteran astronaut Scott Altman will command the final space shuttle mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists rounding out the crew are: veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur.

Image Credits (View Full Size Image): NASA

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