Space shuttle Atlantis is poised to lift off on NASA's final trip to the Hubble Space Telescope. You can watch live streaming coverage of the event here.

The launch is scheduled for this afternoon around 7pm (GMT). Near-perfect weather is expected.

Atlantis will carry a crew of seven and hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of new telescope equipment.

The astronauts will perform five spacewalks to install all the gear. They also will attempt to fix two broken science instruments.

Scientists say once the work is completed, the 19-year-old Hubble will be able to peer deeper into the cosmos and collect an unprecedented amount of science data.

Atlantis was two weeks away from launching last fall when a telescope breakdown put the mission on hold. Astronauts last visited Hubble in 2002.

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Belfast Telegraph