Ah, those Kodak moments for the Hubble repair crew
Look, ma! No Hubble. The image was taken on flight day 10, after the crew had released Hubble. Technically, it was a day off for the crew. But protocol won out. They held an on-orbit press conference, enjoyed an air-to-air conversation with the crew of the International Space Station, and chatted with President Obama. Yesterday, they took part in the first formal Senate hearing (short and sweet) between Capitol Hill and space.
NASA
Oh well, what's another day in space to the crew of the shuttle Atlantis?
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The seven astronauts undoubtedly were looking forward to landing this morning. After all, they've pulled off a remarkable R&R&R trip to the Hubble Space Telescope (that's repair, refurbish, and replace, not rest, relaxation, and repose).
If nothing else, it's Memorial Day weekend, and the grill beckons -- or at lease some taste of Texas barbecue does!
But bad weather at the Kennedy Space Center forced mission managers to wave them off until tomorrow. They've got a couple of options: Kennedy, which still isn't looking good weatherwise, and Edwards Air Force Base in California, where forecasts say the weather will be more cooperative. If Kennedy opens up, the crew would touch down at 9:16 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. If Edwards gets the nod, Atlantis's wheels should touch down at 10:46 EDT.
The shuttle has enough consumables -- essentially oxygen to run its electricity-generating fuel cells -- to get them through Monday. The crew has been dousing unneeded lights and adopting other power-saving measures to stretch out their supply.
So they got some extra time to enjoy the views and perhaps even recap their accomplishments by flipping through the photo album they've amassed. We've selected a smattering of mission photos in the section at the top of this post. If you want to see a larger sample, you'll find it here.




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