In the high bay of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility is ready to be mated to the Hubble vertical platform.

In the high bay of the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center, the Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier for the Hubble Space Telescope, elevated at left, is ready to be mated to the Hubble vertical platform, at right. The Super Lightweight Interchangeable Carrier, or SLIC, is one of four carriers supporting hardware for space shuttle Atlantis' STS-125 mission to service the telescope. SLIC is built with state-of-the-art, lightweight, composite materials - carbon fiber with a cyanate ester resin and a titanium metal matrix composite. These composites have greater strength-to-mass ratios than the metals typically used in spacecraft design. The Orbital Replacement Unit Carrier, or ORUC, and the Flight Support System, or FSS, have also arrived at Kennedy.

The Multi-Use Lightweight Equipment carrier will be delivered in early August. The carriers will be prepared for the integration of telescope science instruments, both internal and external replacement components, as well as the flight support equipment to be used by the astronauts during the Hubble servicing mission, targeted for launch Oct. 8. Photo credit: NASA/Jack Pfaller