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ThereÂ’s no rest for the wicked as just over two days since the end of the Discovery flight, the Space Shuttle Atlantis - framed by a Stars & Stripes - makes its way to Launch Pad 39A on a breezy Florida morning. The crawler transporter has a top speed of one mile per hour and first motion out of the Vehicle Assembly Building was at 4:43 a.m. Rollout is a milestone for Atlantis' launch to the ISS on mission STS-122, targeted for Dec. 6. On this mission, Atlantis will deliver & install the Columbus module.
Credit: NASA/JPL
It’s certainly a hectic time for NASA at the moment, there are a lot of Shuttle flights to cram in before its retirement in a couple of years and, barring any major incidents, this conveyor belt like launch schedule is set to continue until then. Possibly the most exciting launch will be the planned mission next year to service and repair the Hubble telescope for a final time. New and improved instruments will be added to lengthen its operating lifespan and increase its image capturing ability. NASA are collaborating on this mission with Warner Bros & the IMAX corporation so that the whole mission will be filmed by astronauts in the IMAX format to be made into a movie celebrating the Hubble’s discoveries and achievements as well as cataloguing the repair mission itself.