Posted: Wed, May 20, 2009, 6:38 AM ET (1038 GMT)
The space shuttle Atlantis released the Hubble Space Telescope on Tuesday after astronauts successfully completed five days' worth of repairs to the venerable space observatory. The STS-125 crew lifted Hubble from its berth in the shuttle's cargo bay with the orbiter's robot arm and released the telescope at 8:57 am EDT (1257 GMT). Ground controllers will spend the next several weeks checking out the telescope's new and repaired instruments before Hubble resumes scientific observations. The shuttle crew, meanwhile, will have an off day today after spending the rest of the day Tuesday completing inspections to the shuttle's tiles and panels. Atlantis is scheduled to land in Florida on Friday morning.

Related Links:

•  Florida Today article
•  SPACE.com article
•  CBS News/Spaceflight Now article
•  New York Times article
•  NASA STS-125 status report #17