NASA finally got to move space shuttle Atlantis at Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39A, after multiple delays caused by unfavorable weather conditions. The managers cleared the shuttle’s move, after receiving the latest status on Tropical Storm Hanna.

The American space agency has been dealing with a lot of delays lately, caused by the hurricane season. The engineers still hope to have enough time to inspect the space shuttle and prepare it for the final visit to Hubble. The launch is still scheduled to take place on October 8, if nothing else goes wrong, however, more delays wouldn’t come as a surprise.

The mission of the STS-125 crew aboard Atlantis is to return to the Hubble Space Telescope for one last time before the shuttle retires in 2010. The 11-day visit will include 5 spacewalks for repairs and upgrades to the telescope meant to ensure it’s functioning for another five years or more.

Commander Scott Altman, Pilot Gregory C. Johnson, and Mission Specialists Andrew Feustel, Michael Good, John Grunsfeld, Mike Massimino and Megan McArthur form the fifth shuttle crew to fly to the Hubble telescope.

In addition to space shuttle Atlantis, space shuttle Endeavour will be on stand-by in case of emergency, ready to rescue the Atlantis crew if they remain stranded. If Atlantis won’t be able to ensure the return home of the astronauts, Endeavour will be ready to launch, and will be manned by the flight deck crew of STS-123.

The Hubble mission started back in 1990, when the shuttle Discovery launched and released the telescope into the orbit 304 nautical miles above the Earth. Since then, it has circled around Earth over 97,000 times, and has provided numerous answers in ways that would have been impossible from Earth observations.