Chicago native Grunsfeld, an astronomer, made his third trip to Hubble and his fifth space flight. For the STS-125 mission, he performed three spacewalks.  Previously, he performed a total of five spacewalks to service the telescope on STS-103 in 1999 and STS-109 in 2002. He also flew on STS-67 in 1995 and STS-81 in 1997.

STS-125 Mission Overview
Hubble Space Telescope Repair Overview

STS-125 Photo Gallery

MIT Alums John M. Grunsfeld SB ’80 and Michael J. Massimino SM ’88 MS TPP ’88 ME ’90 PhD ’92 launched on Space Shuttle Atlantis for the fifth and final Shuttle Mission (STS-125) to the Hubble Space Telescope. 

Atlantis' nearly 13-day mission of almost 5.3 million miles rejuvenated Hubble with state-of-the-art science instruments designed to improve the telescope's discovery capabilities by as much as 70 times, while extending its lifetime through at least 2014.

The STS-125 mission was the 126th shuttle flight, the 30th for Atlantis and the second of five planned for 2009. Hubble was delivered to space on April 24, 1990, on the STS-31 mission.  Atlantis' landing at Edwards was the 53rd shuttle landing to occur at the desert air base.

Massimino, Michael J.
SM Course 2, ‘88
SM TPP, ‘88
ME, Course 2, ‘90
PhD Course 2, ‘92

Massimino, from Franklin Square, N.Y., made his second trip to Hubble and his second space flight. For the STS-125 mission, he performed two spacewalks. Previously, he performed two spacewalks to service the telescope during the STS-109 mission in 2002.