Posted: Mon, May 11, 2009, 6:20 PM ET (2220 GMT)
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The space shuttle Atlantis lifted off on schedule Monday afternoon on a final servicing mission to the Hubble Space Telescope. Atlantis lifted off at 2:01 pm EDT (1801 GMT) after a problem-free countdown and reached orbit without incident. Atlantis is scheduled to rendezvous with Hubble on Wednesday, after which the STS-125 crew will perform five spacewalks to replace instruments and other components of the telescope to extend its life by several years.