STS-125 MCC Status Report #04 – May 13, 2009 – 4:00 a.m. CDT

The crew of Atlantis is ready to meet up with the Hubble Space Telescope 340 miles above the Earth today. The crew awoke to “Upside Down” by Jack Johnson at 4:01 a.m. CDT. The song was played for Megan McArthur.

Overnight, Hubble’s high gain antenna was retracted in preparation for Atlantis’ arrival. Shortly before the shuttle arrives in the vicinity of Hubble, ground teams will command the telescope to maneuver to its grapple attitude in preparation for berthing in the shuttle’s payload bay.

Atlantis is scheduled to perform the engine burn that will begin its final approach to the telescope at 9:41 a.m., and grapple of the telescope is scheduled for 11:54 a.m. while the two spacecraft are travelling over Madagascar.

The crew will wrap up its day by performing a visual survey of the telescope once it is berthed in the payload bay, and all crew members will conduct a review of the procedures for Thursday’s first spacewalk. The crew also will finish up the check out of the tools necessary for the mission’s five consecutive spacewalks.

Engineers continue to examine the images captured during Tuesday’s inspection of Atlantis’ thermal protection system and exterior surfaces. During that inspection, mission managers noted one area of damage on the forward part of the spacecraft where the wing blends into the fuselage. Initially it appears to be very minor and of no concern for the mission, and the flight team notified the crew late Tuesday that no focused inspection of that particular area is necessary.

The STS-125 crew will begin its sleep period at 7:31 p.m. and awaken at 3:31 a.m. Thursday. The next shuttle status report will be issued at the end of the crew’s day or earlier, if events warrant.