STS-125/HST SM-4 Status Report No. 17 (Forwarded)

STS-125 MCC Status Report #17
Mission Control Center, Houston, Texas
Tuesday, May 19, 2009, 5 p.m. CDT

The crew of Atlantis bid farewell to the Hubble Space Telescope on behalf of
NASA and the rest of the world today. The telescope was released back into
space at 7:57 a.m. CDT. With its upgrades, the telescope should be able to
see farther into the universe than ever before.

Astronaut Megan McArthur used the shuttle's robotic arm to grab Hubble, lift
it out of Atlantis' payload bay and release it. Ground teams opened Hubble's
aperture door, which is the large shutter that protects the telescope's
primary and secondary mirrors.

Atlantis performed a final separation maneuver from the telescope at 8:28
a.m., which took the shuttle out of the vicinity of Hubble. The berthing
mechanism to which Hubble has been attached during the mission was stored
back down into the payload bay.

The rest of the day was focused on the scheduled inspection of Atlantis'
heat shield, searching for any potential damage from orbital debris. The
crew used the shuttle robotic arm to operate the Orbiter Boom Sensor System
(OBSS) for the inspection. The crew worked ahead of schedule and returned
the OBSS to the payload bay sill today instead of tomorrow.

The crew's sleep period is scheduled to begin at 7:31 p.m., although the
crew will try to go to sleep 30 minutes early to help adjust for an earlier
workday for the rest of the mission. The adjusted schedule allows the entry
flight control team to consider an earlier landing opportunity at NASA's
Kennedy Space Center Friday before the sea breeze adversely affects landing
weather conditions later in the day.

The crew is due to wake up tomorrow at 3:01 a.m. for an off-duty day. The
next status report will be issued at the beginning of the crew's day or
earlier if events warrant.