Atlantis astronauts warily eye landing-day weather

CAPE CANAVERAL -- With storms threatening to delay their return to Earth, the Atlantis astronauts took a break from landing preparations Thursday to update a Senate panel on their triumphant Hubble Space Telescope repairs.

The astronauts checked their ship's flight systems and monitored the weather at NASA's spaceport, which was pounded by fierce thunderstorms expected to continue Friday when Atlantis was due to land.

The rain did not dampen NASA's jubilation over the astronauts' impressive Hubble repairs, which garnered kudos from the president and members of a U.S. Senate subcommittee that invited the crew to testify at a hearing. Such in-orbit testimony was a first.

"When we talk about the Hubble and giving it essentially a new life and a new way of going and seeing the universe, you've touched our hearts and you've also made history," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., chairwoman of the science appropriations subcommittee.

Fresh off a call from President Obama the day before, the seven astronauts recounted their most nail-biting moments of the past 1{ weeks.

"You should have seen the action out the back window" during each spacewalk, said pilot Gregory Johnson. "I was on the edge of my seat."

With their work in space complete, the astronauts aimed for a Friday morning touchdown at Kennedy Space Center, but given the dismal weather reports, they were conserving power in order to remain aloft until Monday, if necessary. Mission Control warned that Friday's weather would be "iffy." The backup landing site in Southern California could be used Saturday, if Florida keeps getting hit by storms.

"We flew over today, saw it looked kind of nasty at the moment, but saw some clearing behind it — maybe," commander Scott Altman radioed down. "As long as you think there's a chance, we'll be willing to do whatever it takes."

Atlantis rocketed away on NASA's last visit to Hubble on May 11. In five back-to-back spacewalks beset by stuck bolts and other problems, the astronauts installed two top-of-the-line science instruments and replaced burned-out electronics in two other science scopes. They also gave the 19-year-old observatory a new computer for sending back science data, freshened up the power and pointing systems, and beefed up the exterior with steel foil sheets.