NASA is preparing for the final launch of a shuttle for the Hubble Space Telescope upgrade mission tomorrow

The weather is bright and the forecast is for an 80% chance that it will be clear at launch

At the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the final preparations for the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis are being completed scheduled for tomorrow, Monday at 14:01 PM Eastern Time - 21:01 PM Israel Time.

The head of NASA's Meteorological Service, Kathy Winters, predicted over the weekend that on launch day there is an 80% chance that the weather will be fine, with very little risk of clouds or rain that could prevent the launch. Precisely for the next two days, May 12 and 13, if necessary the shuttle will be launched in the launch windows in which the chance of good weather drops to 60%.

On the ferry's cargo deck are already waiting the new tools and devices and those that will replace old devices as well as the equipment that will be used to install them. Currently only one device works on the Hubble, and therefore it is important to carry out the upgrade task to restore it Multidimensional operability his, to extend his life and above all to allow him to collect and store data. As I recall, the system that handles the data storage on board the telescope, which has been operating in space for 19 years, broke down about six months ago and the system switched to the so-called "second side" mode. As a result, NASA had to postpone the mission until a replacement facility could be built. It is hoped that the technological changes that have occurred in the last 19 years in the field of computing will help improve the condition of the telescope.

A total of five spacewalks are expected to be carried out, and the length of the planned mission is 11 days.

The crew under the command of Scott Altman already arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on Friday. And of course, in light of the conclusions of the commission of inquiry into the Columbia disaster, The shuttle Endeavor will await the second launch pad of the Kennedy Space Center - 39B to extract the crew members if required.