NASA may move up Hubble mission to May 11

April 23, 2009

(AP) -- NASA may move up its final trip to the Hubble Space Telescope by one day.

Space shuttle Atlantis could blast off with its telescope repair crew as early as May 11th, if the Hubble team can complete all its flight preparations in time. NASA wants to have extra time to get the mission off, before having to get in line behind the Air Force. A military operation planned for mid-May would delay the shuttle launch by more than a week.

Hubble program manager Preston Burch says he'll know better in a week if his team can make a launch on the 11th. Liftoff has been targeted for May 12th.

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• yyz - Apr 23, 2009
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  The sooner, the better. Fingers crossed that there's no more delays. Let's Git er done!
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• omatumr - Apr 24, 2009
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  The Hubble telescope is probably the greatest accomplishment of NASA.
  
  The Genesis probe of Jupiter and the Apollo Missions to the Moon were also great accomplishments. Both yielded valuable experimental data but NASA scientists chose to ignore those findings.
  
  NASA would be well served by making Hubble a top priority.
  
  With kind regards,
  Oliver K. Manuel
  Former NASA PI for Apollo Lunar Samples
  http://www.omatumr.com
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