Astronauts get in shuttle, ready to go to Hubble

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - Astronauts strapped into space shuttle Atlantis on Monday for one last flight to the Hubble Space Telescope, an extraordinarily ambitious mission that NASA hopes will lift the celebrated observatory to new scientific heights.

The six men and one woman who will attempt the complicated, riskier than usual job shouted, waved and raised their fists as they headed out to the pad, eager to get going after waiting seven months to fly. Their flight was delayed last fall, two weeks before the scheduled launch, after the orbiting telescope broke down.

"Let's go!" commander Scott Altman said. "Yeah!"