After delays in launching the mission to rescue the Hubble Space Telescope, the shuttle carrying British-born astronaut Michael Foale is nearly ready. Tom Carver reports from Houston.

Michael Foale is putting his space suit back on - the first time in two years.

He and the other six men in the crew are on an urgent mission to revive the Hubble Telescope in the last space journey of the millennium.

Hubble is drifting 600km above Earth with most of its gyroscopes broken. Foale will do two space walks from the shuttle to replace one of Hubble's computers.

Two summers ago he came closing to dying aboard the old Russian space station Mir when he and his colleagues collided with a cargo ship.

The Englishman was widely praised at the time by the Russians and Americans for his coolness.

This time he trained on a unique virtual reality device. It allowed him to rehearse every movement of his six-hour space walks by showing him exactly what he will see when he is next to Hubble.

The astronauts have spent much of the time practising in the world's largest swimming pool. The water helps them get used to working in the gravity free atmosphere of space.

The crew will spend Christmas in space - the first time Nasa has done this since 1973.

If all goes well, they will be back on Earth on Boxing Day - in time to see in the new millennium.