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 Servicing Mission 4 (STS-125) to the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) will be flown on the space shuttle Atlantis, named after a two-masted sailing ship that served as the primary research vessel for the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Massachusetts from 1930 to 1966. This is Atlantis' only visit to Hubble and will be the fifth and final servicing mission of the HST.
Built in the early 1980s, Atlantis (OV-104) was delivered to Kennedy Space Center (KSC) on April 9, 1985 and lifted off on its maiden voyage on October 3, 1985 after seven months of preparation. Construction of Atlantis was completed in half the time as previous shuttles, largely attributed to the use of large thermal protection blankets on the orbiter's upper body, rather than individual tiles. Weighing in at 151, 315 pounds when it rolled out of the assembly plant, it was nearly 3.5 tons lighter than Columbia.
Atlantis has flown 29 shuttle missions to date, including launch of planetary probes Magellan and Galileo, as well as the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory, and pioneered the first seven Shuttle-Mir missions. Atlantis' most recent flight was STS-122 in February 2008 to the International Space Station.
STS-122 takes-off for the International Space Station |
Atlantis touches-down at KSC after successful completion of STS-122 |
By early 2005, Atlantis had undergone two overhauls, known as Orbiter Maintenance Down Periods. During its second major overhaul, Atlantis received the new Multifunction Electronic Display System, or "glass cockpit".
For more information on Space Shuttle Atlantis, visit the NASA Orbital Fleet page.
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