Shuttle Atlantis: Hubble Space Telescope repair mission

The shuttle Atlantis blasted off on Monday to service the Hubble Space Telescope (Image: NASA TV)

Seven astronauts took to the skies on Monday on the last space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. The mission is expected to extend Hubble's life until at least 2014 and provide it with its best vision yet.

The space shuttle Atlantis successfully reached orbit about nine minutes after blasting off at 1801 GMT from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.

The 11-day shuttle mission will be the last to visit the iconic telescope. Over the course of five consecutive spacewalks, astronauts will install six new gyroscopes that help the telescope stabilise itself, six new batteries, two new science instruments and will repair two others.

"In some ways, this is the toughest servicing mission we've ever attempted," NASA's associate administrator for science Ed Weiler told reporters at a pre-mission briefing in April.