Atlantis Harddown at Launch Complex 39-A

The space shuttle stack for the upcoming STS-125 mission to the Hubble Space Telescope arrived at its seaside launch pad for flight late this morning.

Atlantis, which will fly an 11 day flight beginning on May 12, was hard down at the pad at 11:17 am EDT.

Veteran astronaut Scott Altman will command the fourth and final mission to service Hubble. Pilot Gregory C. Johnson, and Mission specialists John M. Grunsfeld, Michael J. Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew J. Feustel, Michael T. Good and Megan McArthur round out the crew of seven.

This will be the last time American astronauts will soar beyond 300 miles altitude for nearly a decade, given Hubble's current altitude of about 310 statue miles. The views from Atlantis payload bay camera should be nice - if only we could boost the space station a tad higher.