The space from the Kennedy Space Center on Monday afternoon. This week's shuttle mission -- the last one going to the Hubble -- is expected to give the orbiter at least another five years of life, according to the space agency.

While the shuttle was making its way toward Hubble yesterday, multiple dings were found in critical tiles on the shuttle's outer heat shield. Scratches were found on the forward part of the shuttle's right wing, close to where it connects to the fuselage. NASA has said the damage appears to be minor but they are continuing to investigate it.

The shuttle is carrying 22,500 pounds of equipment for the telescope, including new grapple hooks and a platform that can be used in case future missions go up to service the telescope. This will be the shuttle's last trip to Hubble though, since the NASA space shuttles are scheduled to be retired next year.

This week's mission includes plans to install new gyroscopes, circuit boards and critical camera systems. The bringing up a new backup computer system to replace an onboard backup system that had to be put into use last fall when , leaving the orbiter unable to do much of its scientific work. the remote switchover to a backup system from a room in the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., while the telescope hurtled along its orbit around Earth at 17,500 mph.