Edwards, California - May 26, 2009 — The Hubble Space Telescope has determined the universe is 13.7 billion years old. It found that virtually all major galaxies have black holes at their center, plus it detected the first-ever organic molecule in the atmosphere of a planet orbiting another star.
And thanks to the STS-125 astronauts, who conducted five spacewalks over five consecutive days to enhance and extend the life of the orbiting observatory, the Hubble will be able to make more discoveries through at least 2014.
Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew landed at 11:39 a.m. EDT Sunday, May 24, at Edwards Air Force Base, completing the final servicing mission to the Hubble. During a press conference held at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Associate Administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate Ed Weiler said: "Now, and only now can we declare this mission a total success - the astronauts are safely on the ground. This is not the end of the story but the beginning of another chapter of discovery by Hubble."
Atlantis' nearly 13-day mission of almost 5.3 million miles rejuvenated Hubble with state-of-the-art science instruments designed to improve the telescope's discovery capabilities by as much as 70 times, while extending its lifetime.
Before leaving Runway 22 at Edwards Air Force Base in California, Commander Scott Altman spoke for his crew to thank everyone for getting them safely back home.
"At last! I didn't realize it was going to be so hard to get back to the Earth, landing here just felt great to everybody," said Altman.
Weather concerns prevented the crew from returning to Kennedy
Space Center in Florida on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Although
Atlantis could have remained in space until Monday, NASA wanted to land the shuttle Sunday so officials opted for the California landing.
Atlantis will be transported approximately 2,500 miles from California to Florida on the back of a modified 747 jumbo jet in about a week. Once at Kennedy, the shuttle will be separated from the aircraft to begin processing for its next flight, targeted for November 2009.
The STS-125 mission was the 126th shuttle flight, the 30th for Atlantis and the second of five planned for 2009. Hubble was delivered to space on April 24, 1990, on the STS-31 mission. Atlantis' landing at Edwards was the 53rd shuttle landing to occur at the desert air base.
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The space shuttle Atlantis touches down at Edwards AFB. Photo credit: NASA
The crew of space shuttle mission STS-125 gathered on the runway after the shuttle Atlantis landed. From left are Mike Massimino, Greg Johnson, Scott Altman, Megan McArthur, John Grunsfeld, Andrew Feustel and Michael Good.
Photo credit: NASA/Tony Landis
An STS-125 crewmember aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis captured this still image of the Hubble Space Telescope as the two spacecraft continue their relative separation on May 19, after having been linked together for the better part
of a week. Photo credit: NASA
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