Rendezvous with Hubble

Atlantis Launch Video (Credit:NASA)

Mission began with roaring of Atlantis into sky from Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, Florida on May 11 Monday.On the following day, crew members inspected heat ceramic tiles with a robotic arm and reported some scratches which were declared harmless by experts in Houston Control Center. Atlantis finally caught with the Hubble Space Telescope on Wednesday. This was a two-step process in which Hubble was secured by a robotic arm first (see picture) and then Flight Engineer Megan McArthur successfully lowered it into the shuttle's cargo bay onto the Flight Support System, or FSS. Another feat, though not so mission critical, was Mike Massimino becoming the first astronaut to tweet from space (view Massimino twitter feed).