Sciencio.com

Space shuttle Atlantis was launched today from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying 7 astronauts to 11-day mission to refurbish the Hubble Space Telescope.

Five consecutive days of spacewalks will follow to equip Hubble Space Telescope with new science instruments, six positioning gyroscopes, batteries and fresh thermal insulation.

"It's a great day to go fly," launch director Mike Leinbach radioed to Atlantis commander Scott Altman shortly before liftoff. "Enjoy the ride, pal."

Astronauts will try also to fix two broken cameras, one of which is needed to probe the atmospheres of planets circling in other solar systems.

Members of crew on 126th shuttle mission are: commander Scott Altman, pilot Greg Johnson, flight engineer Megan McArthur and spacewalkers John Grunsfeld, Michael Massimino, Michael Good and Andrew Feustel.

Atlantis space shuttle should attach to Hubble by Wednesday.