The space shuttle Atlantis is being set up on its launch pad in preparation for the final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. (Image right shows Atlantis atop the mobile launcher platform yesterday.)

Led by Scott Altman, mission STS-125 will undertake five spacewalks to upgrade and repair the telescope’s sensors, batteries and gyroscopes, hopefully equipping it for another five years of operation (NASA press release).

“I remember when I was a kid going outside and looking up at the stars and going, ‘Wow, I wonder what’s out there’ … Hubble is a tool that can take you out there to those distant galaxies, those pictures that come back,” said Altman in an interview last year.

“… It’s amazing to me when I talk to people and I say, hey, I’m going to the Hubble, they go, “Wow, I’m so glad we’re going back.” All kinds of folks in every walk of life know about Hubble and connect with the idea that it’s a good thing for us to have and they’ve made some connection with it on their own.”

If all goes to plan Atlantis will blast off 12 May, although, as Florida Today notes, the mission has not had great luck so far:

A telescope computer glitch last fall delayed the planned October mission and forced Atlantis to dismount from the pad. Tropical storms and a freak hailstorm did the same during unrelated missions in 2006 and 2007.

“We’ve always had little issues with getting Atlantis out the door, and keeping her out the door,” [Angie Brewer, the NASA manager in charge of preparing the spaceship for flight] said.

Small hitches are still in evidence: Heat resistant tiles on the shuttle were damaged when it was joined to its external fuel tank (NASA Spaceflight). Space.com says a worker dropped a wrench socket on the craft, but that the tiles have now been repaired with heat-resistant putty.

Images: NASA