Atlantis Crew Visiting KSC for Training

Seven Atlantis astronauts are scheduled to jet into Kennedy Space Center this afternoon for some refresher training in advance of their targeted May 12 launch to the Hubble Space Telescope.

Led by mission commander Scott Altman, the crew will conduct the fifth and final mission to service the observatory, an 11-day flight that includes five spacewalks.

Joining Altman are pilot Gregory Johnson and mission specialists John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino, Megan McArthur, Andrew Fuestal and Michael Good.

The group will depart separately from Houston in NASA's T-38 training jets and land on KSC's three-mile runway, the same one on which they'll hope to land Atlantis on May 23.

You can track the flights from Ellington Field here.

NASA TV will not cover the crew's arrival live.

On Thursday, the astronauts have a full day of "familiarization" with the Hubble payload hardware stored in the spaceport's Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility clean room.

There, a new Science Instrument Control and Data Handling computer unit will be attached to a cargo palette for flight.

The failure of that unit in orbit last fall led to the postponement the mission's planned Oct. 14 launch.

Hardware removed to make room for the new unit will not affect the mission, NASA says.

Friday morning, the crew will get a refresher course on procedures covered during three days of training last September, which included steps for how to escape from the orbiter and launch pad during an emergency.

The crew will not repeat the full launch countdown dress rehearsal performed in September, called the Terminal Countdown Demonstration Test, or TCDT.

The astronauts plan to fly back to Houston around noon Friday, and aren't expected to return to KSC until a few days before the launch.

The arrival for training comes just a day after KSC workers rolled Atlantis out to launch pad 39A.

IMAGE NOTES: Click to enlarge the images. Above, in the early morning hours of March 31, space shuttle Atlantis rolled out to Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center after rollout from the Vehicle Assembly Building. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller.
Middle: On March 30 in the clean area of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit, or SIC&DH, in the foreground, is being prepared for integration onto the Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment Carrier, in the background. The SIC&DH will be installed on the Hubble Space Telescope during space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission, replacing the one that suffered a failure aboard the orbiting telescope on Sept. 27, 2008. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller
Below: On Sept. 24, 2008, after taking part in a simulated launch countdown aboard space shuttle Atlantis and practicing emergency escape procedures, the STS-125 crew paused for a photo on the 225-foot level of the fixed service structure at Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. From left are mission specialists John Grunsfeld and Michael Good, pilot Gregory C. Johnson, mission commander Scott Altman, and mission specialists Mike Massimino, Andrew Feustel and Megan McArthur. Photo credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett