ATLANTIS STS-125: The IMAX Movie

The IMAX film makers who brought America and the world The Dream is Alive and Blue Planet are currently working on a new movie of the upcoming final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope next month.

As the crew of Atlantis trains for mission STS-125 to repair and service America's eye on the universe, the IMAX team is there with the flight crew of seven astronauts - even in the huge pool at the Johnson Space Center near Houston - as they practice their mid-May work on Hubble.

"(We) completed our final practice for spacewalk 2 in the big pool, huge IMAX camera was in the pool with us filming a 3D movie. (A) really fun day", STS-125 mission specialist and spacewalker Mike Massimino (below, on right with crew mate Mike Good) told SpaceLaunchNews.com via Twitter on Friday morning.

Atlantis's flight will be the last manned spaceflight for the next six to eight years which will fly higher than 300 statue miles. That alone will give the newer IMAX cameras a great view of the earth from the higher orbital altitude, with the space telescope resting in Atlantis' cargo bay.

"I had the Hubble Space Telescope team and the IMAX underwater film crew over at the house for dinner (tonight). Lots of great space and shark stories..." Mike stated late on Saturday evening.

Over the last twenty-five years, IMAX cameras have flown on several space shuttle missions and to the international space station. These films yielded beautiful video shots which are so impressive on the fifty-foot screens located at several NASA centers. IMAX has recently begun transfering several of their older films onto Blu-Ray as high def televisions and players become more common place on the dawn of the second decade of the 21st century.

Atlantis' crew includes commander Scott Altman, pilot Gregory C. Johnson, and mission specialists Massimino, Mike Good, K. Megan McArthur, John Grunsfeld and Andrew Feustel.

The movie, maybe titled "Return to Hubble", will get it's premire at the Kennedy Space Center late this year or early 2010. You can watch the filming beginning on May 12th with the launch of Atlantis right here via SpaceLaunch News - LIVE!