By Marc S. Posner
SOAR Magazine

Atlantis and the seven-member crew returned home to California this morning, ending a 13-day mission that at one point was considered too risky to conduct. In the wake of the 2003 Columbia accident this mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope was cancelled, in part because astronauts wouldn’t have the International Space Station to use as a lifeboat.

The crew, however, came through with flying colors on this final mission to Hubble — and the last to go somewhere other than the space station. Four astronauts — Michael Good, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino and Andrew Feustel — combined for five spacewalks to fit the observatory with replacement instruments, batteries and gyroscopes.

“Welcome home from a very successful mission … giving Hubble a new pair of eyes,” the crew was greeted via radio from mission control.

Already a crown jewel of the space agency, the work enhanced Hubble, ensuring cutting-edge science will continue. Astronauts installed advanced technology that improves the telescope’s discovery power by 10 to 70 times. The work resulted in six working, complementary science instruments with new capabilities, and an extended operational lifespan through at least 2014.

After 197 orbits, nearly 5.3 million miles and two extra days in orbit (because of poor weather in Florida), Atlantis crossed the California coast near Santa Barbara before making a 200-degree counter-clockwise turn and gliding down from the northeast onto Runway 22 at Edwards under the manual control of Commander Scott Altman.

Today’s landing is the 53rd flight of the shuttle program’s 126 missions to conclude in California, with the most-recent coming on November 30, 2008. STS-125 was the 30th flight for Atlantis and the second for 2009.

Retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson piloted the mission. Mission specialists included veteran spacewalkers Grunsfeld and Massimino, along with first-time space fliers Feustel and Good. Mission specialist K. Megan McArthur also made her first flight.

Altman, a native of Pekin, Ill., made his fourth space flight and his second trip to Hubble. He commanded the STS-109 Hubble servicing mission in 2002. He served as pilot of STS-90 in 1998 and STS-106 in 2000. Johnson, a Seattle native and former Navy test pilot and NASA research pilot, was selected as an astronaut in 1998. This was his first space flight.

Chicago native Grunsfeld, an astronomer, made his third trip to Hubble and his fifth space flight. He performed a total of five spacewalks to service the telescope on STS-103 in 1999 and STS-109 in 2002. He also flew on STS-67 in 1995 and STS-81 in 1997. Massimino, from Franklin Square, N.Y., made his second trip to Hubble and his second space flight. He performed two spacewalks to service the telescope during the STS-109 mission in 2002.

Feustel, Good, and McArthur were each selected as astronauts in 2000. Feustel, a native of Lake Orion, Mich., was an exploration geophysicist in the petroleum industry at the time of his selection by NASA. Good is from Broadview Heights, Ohio, and is an Air Force colonel, weapons systems officer and graduate of the Air Force Test Pilot School, having logged more than 2,100 hours in 30 different types of aircraft. McArthur, born in Honolulu, Hawaii, considers California her home state. She has a doctorate in oceanography from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California-San Diego.

With shuttle Endeavour poised at its side for a potential rescue mission, Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on May 11 and arrived at Hubble two days later. Hubble was returned to explore the heavens on May 19 as Atlantis departed for the final time.

Following the loss of Columbia in February, 2003, NASA originally cancelled the Hubble servicing mission, saying it was too risky to fly to a destination other than the International Space Station, where the astronauts could find a safe haven if similar damage to the shuttle had happened during launch or ascent, as was the case with Columbia. Had inspections of the heat shield on this flight revealed worrisome damage, NASA would have launched Endeavour on a rescue mission, dubbed STS-400. With that threat now passed, Endeavour is being readied for its next flight, STS-127.

NASA will begin prepping Atlantis for the trans-continental trip back to Florida. The astronauts will fly to Houston.

STS-125 was referred to as Servicing Mission 4 (SM-4), although it is technically the fifth serving flight to the telescope.

Among Hubble’s greatest discoveries: determining the age of the universe (13.7 billion years); finding that virtually all major galaxies have black holes at their center; discovering that the process of planetary formation is relatively common; detecting first ever organic molecule in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star; and providing evidence that the speed at which the universe is expanding is accelerating–caused by an unknown
force that makes up more than 75 percent of the universe.

The farthest objects Hubble has seen are galaxies more than 12 billion light years away.

Each Hubble orbit takes 96 minutes. Its speed is about 5 miles per second.

Pointing Hubble and locking onto distant celestial objects is equivalent to holding a laser light steady on a dime that is 200 miles away.

NASA has just informed Atlantis’ crew that “we just couldn’t get comfortable” with the weather in Florida and that the crew will be diverted to California on the upcoming landing opportunity.

The space agency called the weather conditions in California “pristine” for today’s landing.

Deorbit burn is set for 10:24 a.m., ET. with a landing at 11:39 a.m. ET

Commander Scott Altman will bring Atlantis into Edwards over the coast of California and make a swooping 220-degree left overhead turn before landing from the northeast on Runway 22.

Atlantis’ seven astronauts will be coming home today. The questions of where and when, however, are yet to be determined.

NASA already has waived off one landing opportunity this morning for Florida’s Kennedy Space Center.

Mission Control will make a decision at approximately 10:10 a.m. ET whether to land at Kennedy or Edwards. Deorbit burn for Edwards is at 10:24 a.m. ET, with a landing at 11:40 a.m. A landing at Kennedy on the upcoming orbit would take place at 11:49 a.m. following a deorbit burn at 10:31 a.m.

The upcoming landing opportunities are coming on the 197th orbit of the mission. It also represents the final opportunity of the day to land at Kennedy. An additional opportunity at Edwards exists on orbit 198. That would take place at 1:19 p.m. ET.

“Weather is iffy at Kennedy Space Center,” agency officials noted. “Although the shuttle could stay in space until Monday, it will land today-at Edwards if needed.”

Atlantis crew is doing deorbit preps for today’s landing.They awoke at 1:01 a.m. ET to “The Ride of the Valkyries,” composed by Richard Wagner.

The landing times below are approximate and subject to change. All
times are Eastern:

Sunday Landing Opportunities
10:11 a.m., Orbit 196, landing at Kennedy (deorbit burn at 8:58 a.m.)
11:40 a.m., Orbit 197, landing at Edwards (deorbit burn at 10:25 a.m.)
11:49 a.m., Orbit 197, landing at Kennedy (deorbit burn at 10:31 a.m.)
1:19 p.m., Orbit 198, landing at Edwards (deorbit burn at 12:08 p.m.)

Weather won’t permit Atlantis to return to Florida today, so NASA has decided not to land at all — instead holding out hope that conditions will improve enough for a Sunday landing at Kennedy Space Center.

STS-125 Entry Flight Director Norm Knight has waved off today’s landing opportunities at both Kennedy and Edwards Air Force Base in California.

“There’s a chance for a landing at Kennedy tomorrow, and we’re going to keep that option open. Edwards remains good for tomorrow and Monday, if needed,” Capcom Greg Johnson explained to the crew, who will now enjoy an extra day in orbit.

Tomorrow, the first landing opportunity at Kennedy Space Center is at 10:11 a.m. EDT.

NASA Flight Director Norm Knight and the entry team will evaluate weather conditions at Kennedy before permitting Atlantis and its crew to land at 9:16 a.m. Saturday. A second Kennedy landing opportunity is at 10:54 a.m. The shuttle also has landing opportunities at Edwards Air Force Base in California at 10:46 a.m. and 12:24 p.m.

If Atlantis does not land Saturday, there are multiple landing opportunities Sunday at Kennedy, Edwards, or White Sands Space Harbor in New Mexico. The Kennedy news center will open for landing activities. For recorded updated information about landing and news center hours, call 321-867-2525.

If the landing is diverted to Edwards, reporters should call the Dryden public affairs office at 661-276-3449. Dryden has limited facilities available for use by previously accredited journalists.

The landing times below are approximate and subject to change. All times are EDT:

Saturday Landing Opportunities
9:16 a.m., Orbit 180, landing at Kennedy (deorbit burn at 8:02 a.m.)
10:46 a.m., Orbit 181, landing at Edwards (deorbit burn at 9:29 a.m.)
10:54 a.m., Orbit 181, landing at Kennedy (deorbit burn at 9:46 a.m.)
12:24 p.m., Orbit 182, landing at Edwards (deorbit burn at 11:12 a.m.)

Sunday Landing Opportunities
10:01 a.m., Orbit 196, landing at Edwards (deorbit burn at 8:42 a.m.)
10:04 a.m., Orbit 196, landing at White Sands (deorbit burn at 8:46
a.m.)
10:10 a.m., Orbit 196, landing at Kennedy (deorbit burn at 8:57 a.m.)
11:39 a.m., Orbit 197, landing at Edwards (deorbit burn at 10:24 a.m.)
11:42 a.m., Orbit 197, landing at White Sands (deorbit burn at 10:29
a.m.)
11:48 a.m., Orbit 197, landing at Kennedy (deorbit burn at 10:42 a.m.)

Poor weather today in Florida has given Atlantis astronauts an extra day in orbit.

A similarly unfavorable forcast for tomorrow means the crew is likely headed to Southern California.

After five successful spacewalks at the Hubble Space Telescope, the STS-125 crew is in the home stretch of its mission.

The crew talked with members of the media at different NASA centers Wednesday about the mission, the Hubble Space Telescope and the crew’s thoughts on being a part of this fifth and final servicing mission.

After lunch, the crew had a chance to talk with Expedition 19 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Koichi Wakata on the International Space Station during a ship-to-ship call as the two vehicles circled the Earth in different orbits. Later in the day, the station crew toasted the first use of the station’s new water recycling system with fellow astronauts, engineers, flight controllers and program officials on the ground.

Mission managers completed their review of the late inspection of the shuttle’s wing leading edge and nosecap heat shield, and cleared the entire thermal protection system for safe entry. Landing is scheduled for 10:01 a.m. EDT Friday at Kennedy Space Center, Florida, weather permitting.

It was one small sip for man and one giant gulp for mankind. On Wednesday evening, astronauts took a ceremonial first drink from the space station’s newly approved purification system.

NASA’s Mission Control gave the Expedition 19 astronaut crew aboard the International Space Station a “go” to drink water that the station’s new recycling system has purified.

Mission Control radioed the news to the crew Wednesday, following a report from the Water Recovery System team that station program managers approved. The decision is an important milestone in the development of the station’s environmental and life support systems, which will begin supporting six-person crews at the end of May.

Expedition 19 Commander Gennady Padalka and Flight Engineers Mike Barratt and Koichi Wakata celebrated the decision with a toast in the Destiny laboratory.

“This has been the stuff of science fiction. Everybody’s talked about recycling water in a closed loop system, but nobody’s ever done it before. Here we are today with the first round of recycled water,” said Barratt. “We’re really happy for this day and for the team that put this together. This is the kind of technology that will get us to the moon and further.”

“This is an important milestone in the development of the space station,” said Kirk Shireman, International Space Station deputy program manager at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “This system will reduce the amount of water we must launch to the station once the shuttle retires and also test out a key technology required for sending humans on long duration missions to the moon and Mars.”

Space shuttle Endeavour’s STS-126 mission delivered the Water Recovery System to the station in November 2008. Mission Specialist Don Pettit and Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke installed the equipment before Endeavour’s departure. The system has been processing urine into purified water since shuttle Discovery’s STS-119 crew delivered and installed a replacement Urine Processing Assembly in March. The system is tied into the station’s Waste and Hygiene Compartment toilet and recovers and recycles moisture from the station’s atmosphere.

The crews of STS-126, Expedition 18 and STS-119 returned samples of the recycled water to Earth. A total of 5.28 gallons (20 liters) of recycled water were tested for purity at the Water and Microbiology Laboratories at Johnson. A special Space Station Program Control Board meeting on April 27 reviewed the analysis, which showed contaminants were well below established limits, and concurred that the water is safe and healthy to drink. Mission managers elected to postpone consumption until a sticky check valve in the Urine Processing Assembly was removed May 18.

Space station crews will monitor the purity of the recycled water with on-board equipment and periodically send down samples for testing on Earth.

Atlantis’ seven-member crew is enjoying a well-deserved day off. They awoke to the theme from the TV series “Star Trek” this morning. It was played for the entire crew.