The psalmist praises the "wondrous deeds" of the Lord this Sunday. For 19 years the Hubble Space Telescope has beamed back to earth wondrous images of the universe's farthest-flung mysteries. This week the space shuttle Atlantis is on its way to make NASA's final maintenance visit to the telescope.

Atlantis and its crew moved toward the telescope for a 350-mile-high grab Wednesday that will set the stage for five days of treacherous spacewalking repairs in an orbit littered with space junk.

Beginning Thursday teams of spacewalking astronauts will take turns venturing outside to replace the Hubble's batteries, gyroscopes, and an old camera and pointing mechanism, among other repairs and updates.

This is the fifth and final flight to Hubble. The space agency hopes to get another 5 to 10 years of dazzling views of the cosmos because of the upgrades. The new cameras should enable the observatory to peer more deeply into the cosmos and collect an unprecedented amount of data.

Source: An article by Marcia Dunn for Associated Press