The red carpet may not be there, but the impressiveness of the mission still wows the crowds. Ramping up for the STS-125 astronauts is the Johnson Space Center in Florida when they all arrive on Friday. Today in the motion base simulator at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, they will participate in some final training in preparation for their mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The crew began the standard prelaunch quarantine last night.

With the launch of space shuttle Atlantis less than one week away, preparations at Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A are in the final stages. Liftoff is scheduled for May 11 at 2:01 p.m. EDT.

  Veteran astronaut Scott Altman will command the final space shuttle mission to service NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, and retired Navy Capt. Gregory C. Johnson will serve as pilot. Mission specialists rounding out the crew are: veteran spacewalkers John Grunsfeld and Mike Massimino, and first-time space fliers Andrew Feustel, Michael Good and Megan McArthur.

During the 11-day mission's five spacewalks, astronauts will install two new instruments, repair two inactive ones and perform the component replacements that will keep the telescope functioning into at least 2014.

In addition to the originally scheduled work, Atlantis also will carry a replacement Science Instrument Command and Data Handling Unit for Hubble. Astronauts will install the unit on the telescope, removing the one that stopped working on Sept. 27, 2008, delaying the servicing mission until the replacement was ready.