STS-125 Mission Update – May 9, 2009

NASA Managers Clear Atlantis for Monday Launch

Space Shuttle Program managers are giving the green light for Monday’s launch of shuttle Atlantis. The program’s mission management team met late Saturday afternoon at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Fla., to evaluate how countdown activities were progressing. Managers briefed media following the meeting. Mike Moses, chair of the mission management team, said launch controllers not working any issues that would prevent an on-time liftoff on May 11 at 2:01 p.m. EDT. Lt. Col. Patrick Barrett, weather officer from 45th Space Wing, said there still is an 80 percent chance of favorable weather at Kennedy on Monday, with only a slight chance of an isolated shower in the area of Moron, Spain, the only transoceanic abort landing site for this mission, which will upgrade NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope. On Sunday, for the second morning in a row Atlantis Commander Scott Altman and Pilot Gregory C. Johnson will practice landings in the Shuttle Training Aircraft at Kennedy’s shuttle runway.