The Hubble Space Telescope, hobbled by old age and years of post-Columbia neglect, was plucked out of open space by the crew of the shuttle Atlantis today, setting the stage for a final five-spacewalk overhaul to give the iconic observatory an extended lease on life.

Atlantis captures Hubble. Credit: NASA TV

Commander Scott Altman, who flew an F-14 jet in the movie "Top Gun," deftly maneuvered the orbiter to within a few dozen feet of the 24,500-pound telescope as the two spacecraft sailed through space in lockstep, covering 84 football fields per second high above western Australia.

Astronaut Megan McArthur, operating the shuttle's 50-foot-long robot arm with easy grace, then grappled the huge observatory at 1:14 p.m. to wrap up a two-day rendezvous.

"Houston, Atlantis, Hubble has arrived on board," Altman exclaimed.

"Atlantis, Houston, we copy. Nice job, Megan, nice job on the prox ops flying as well," astronaut Dan Burbank replied from mission control. "It's great to be back with the telescope."

"Thank you, Houston, appreciate the support getting us here," Altman said.

Added lead spacewalker self-described "Hubble hugger" John Grunsfeld: "We're very excited up here, I can tell you."

The only problem during today's approach was a malfunction in a component aboard the shuttle that blocked one channel of command link between the telescope and Atlantis. The astronauts had no problems working around the glitch, easily compensating for a commanding delay that resulted in a slight misalignment between the two spacecraft.

The issue delayed the grapple by about 25 minutes and additional steps were required after capture to make sure ground commands could reach the telescope.

After confirming final commands had, in fact, gotten through, McArthur was cleared to begin maneuvers to mount Hubble on a rotating service platform at the back of Atlantis' payload bay. Once locked in place, the astronauts will carry out a detailed photo survey to document the condition of Hubble's protective insulation and to look for signs of impact damage from micrometeoroids and space debris.

Seen for the first time since a pre-Columbia service call in early 2002, the space telescope appeared to be in remarkably good condition given its 19 years in the harsh environment of space, with no immediately obvious problems with its insulation panels or other exterior components.

"Just looking out the window here, and it's an unbelievably beautiful sight, amazingly, the exterior of Hubble, an old man of 19 years in space, still looks in fantastic shape," Grunsfeld radioed.

If all goes well, an electrical cable in the servicing platform will be remotely extended and plugged into a receptacle at the base of the telescope to provide shuttle power for the duration of the overhaul.

The first of five back-to-back spacewalks is on tap Thursday, starting around 8:16 a.m. Over the course of the mission, the astronauts plan to install two new science instruments, repair two others, swap out a science data computer and install new batteries, gyroscopes, a refurbished fine guidance sensor and new insulation panels.

The goal is to extend Hubble's life by at least five years.

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