The space agency of United States, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was extremely elated when the space shuttle Atlantis linked up with the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope safely and successfully yesterday.

The Atlantis caught the Hubble Telescope at 12:14 p.m. CDT on Wednesday. The mission specialist Megan McArthur maneuvered the Hubble Telescope onto a Flight Support System maintenance platform inside the payload bay of Atlantis, with the help of the Atlantis grapple arm.

Megan confirmed the catching of the Hubble Telescope by communicating to the Mission Control that the telescope was safely stowed. Megan reported, "Houston, Hubble has arrived onboard." The Mission Control replied, "Nice job, Megan."

NASA reported that the link-up survived one minor scare of space debris from a Chinese satellite that was spotted near space shuttle and the telescope. However, the space debris zoom passed safely.
In a press conference, Astrophysics Division Director, Jon Morse said, "After 19 years, it still looks to be in amazing shape. There was such a feeling of elation. It was truly a wonderful sight... the telescope on the end of the grapple arm with the Earth in the background. It was an amazing sight."

The astronauts will begin five spacewalks to upgrade and repair the Hubble Telescope on Thursday. The Hubble Telescope will work at least up to 2014.