STS-82 was the 22nd flight of the

Space Shuttle The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...

''Discovery'' and the 82nd mission of the

Space Shuttle program The Space Shuttle program was the fourth human spaceflight program carried out by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which accomplished routine transportation for Earth-to-orbit crew and cargo from 1981 to 2011. Its ...

. It was NASA's second mission to service the

Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most versa ...

, during which ''Discovery's'' crew repaired and upgraded the telescope's scientific instruments, increasing its research capabilities. ''Discovery'' launched from

Kennedy Space Center The John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC, originally known as the NASA Launch Operations Center), located on Merritt Island, Florida, is one of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) ten field centers. Since December 1968 ...

, Florida, on 11 February 1997, returning to Earth on 21 February 1997 at Kennedy Space Center.

Crew

Spacewalks

*''EVA 1'' Lee and Smith **Start: 14 February 1997 – 04:34 UTC **End: 14 February 1997 – 11:16 UTC **Duration: 6 hours, 42 minutes *''EVA 2'' Harbaugh and Tanner **Start: 15 February 1997 – 03:25 UTC **End: 15 February 1997 – 10:52 UTC **Duration: 7 hours, 27 minutes *''EVA 3'' Lee and Smith **Start: 16 February 1997 – 02:53 UTC **End: 16 February 1997 – 10:04 UTC **Duration: 7 hours, 11 minutes *''EVA 4'' Harbaugh and Tanner **Start: 17 February 1997 – 03:45 UTC **End: 17 February 1997 – 10:19 UTC **Duration: 6 hours, 34 minutes *''EVA 5'' Lee and Smith **Start: 18 February 1997 – 13:15 UTC **End: 18 February 1997 – 18:32 UTC **Duration: 5 hours, 17 minutes

Mission objectives

Neutral Buoyancy Simulator Hubble Space Telescope repair training

The STS-82 mission was the second in a series of planned servicing missions to the orbiting

("HST"), which had been placed in orbit on 24 April 1990 by ''Discovery'' during STS-31. The first servicing mission was done by Space Shuttle ''Endeavour'' on

STS-61 STS-61 was the first NASA Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission, and the fifth flight of the Space Shuttle ''Endeavour''. The mission launched on 2 December 1993 from Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The mission restored the spacebor ...

. Work performed by ''Discovery's'' crew significantly upgraded the scientific capabilities of the HST and helped to keep the telescope functioning smoothly until the next scheduled servicing missions, which were

STS-103 STS-103 was a Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission by Space Shuttle ''Discovery''. The mission launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 19 December 1999 and returned on 27 December 1999. It was also the last Shuttle mission of the 19 ...

in 1999 and

STS-109 STS-109 (SM3B) was a Space Shuttle mission that launched from the Kennedy Space Center on 1 March 2002. It was the 108th mission of the Space Shuttle program, the 27th flight of the orbiter '' Columbia'' and the fourth servicing of the Hubble ...

in 2002. On the third day of the mission, ''Discovery's'' seven-member crew conducted the first of four spacewalks (also called

Extra-vehicular Activities Extravehicular activity (EVA) is any activity done by an astronaut in outer space outside a spacecraft. In the absence of a breathable Earthlike atmosphere, the astronaut is completely reliant on a space suit for environmental support. EVA inc ...

or "EVAs") to remove two older instruments and install two new astronomy instruments, as well as perform other servicing tasks. The two older instruments being replaced were the

Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph The Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS or HRS) was an ultraviolet spectrograph installed on the Hubble Space Telescope during its original construction, and it was launched into space as part of that space telescope aboard the Space Shuttl ...

and the

Faint Object Spectrograph The Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS) was a spectrograph installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. It was replaced by the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph in 1997, and is now on display in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington DC. FO ...

, exchanged for the

Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph The Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) is a spectrograph, also with a camera mode, installed on the Hubble Space Telescope. Aerospace engineer Bruce Woodgate of the Goddard Space Flight Center was the principal investigator and creat ...

(STIS) and the

Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer The Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) is a scientific instrument for infrared astronomy, installed on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), operating from 1997 to 1999, and from 2002 to 2008. Images produced by NICMOS contain ...

(NICMOS), respectively. STS-82 Discovery night landing KSC-97PC-0352

In addition to installing the new instruments, astronauts replaced other existing hardware with upgrades and spares. Hubble received a refurbished Fine Guidance Sensor, an

optical Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultraviole ...

device used to provide pointing information for the telescope and as a scientific instrument for astrometric science. The Solid State Recorder (SSR) replaced one of HST's reel-to-reel tape recorders. The SSR provides much more flexibility than a reel-to-reel recorder and can store ten times more data. One of Hubble's four Reaction Wheel Assemblies (RWA) -- part of the telescope's Pointing Control Subsystem—was replaced with a refurbished spare. The RWAs use

angular momentum In physics, angular momentum (rarely, moment of momentum or rotational momentum) is the rotational analog of linear momentum. It is an important physical quantity because it is a conserved quantity—the total angular momentum of a closed syst ...

to move and maintain the telescope in a desired position. The wheel axes are oriented so that the telescope can provide science with only three wheels operating, if required. Study of the returned mechanism provided a rare opportunity to study equipment that had undergone long-term service (7 years) in space, particularly for the effects of vacuum on

lubricant A lubricant (sometimes shortened to lube) is a substance that helps to reduce friction between surfaces in mutual contact, which ultimately reduces the heat generated when the surfaces move. It may also have the function of transmitting forces, t ...

s which were found to be in 'excellent condition'.

Mission results

STS-82 demonstrated anew the capability of the Space Shuttle to service orbiting spacecraft. ''Discovery's'' crew completed servicing and upgrading of the Hubble Space Telescope during four planned EVAs, later performing a fifth unscheduled space walk to repair insulation on the telescope. The Hubble Space Telescope was deployed in April 1990 during STS-31. It was designed to undergo periodic servicing and upgrading over its projected 15-year lifespan, with first servicing performed during

in December 1993. Hawley, who originally deployed the telescope, operated the orbiter

Remote Manipulator System Canadarm or Canadarm1 (officially Shuttle Remote Manipulator System or SRMS, also SSRMS) is a series of robotic arms that were used on the Space Shuttle orbiters to deploy, manoeuvre, and capture payloads. After the Space Shuttle ''Columbia'' ...

arm on STS-82 to retrieve the telescope for second servicing at 3:34 am EST, 13 Feb., and positioned it above ''Discovery's'' payload bay less than half an hour later. Relying on more than 150 tools and crew aids, Lee and Smith performed EVAs 1, 3 and 5, with Harbaugh and Tanner performing EVAs 2 and 4. EVA 1 began at 11:34 pm EST, 13 February, and lasted six hours, 42 minutes. One of Hubble's solar arrays was unexpectedly disturbed by a gust of air from ''Discovery's'' airlock when it was depressurized, but was not damaged. Lee and Smith removed two scientific instruments from Hubble, the

(GHRS) and

(FOS), and replaced them with the

(STIS) and

(NICMOS), respectively. STIS expected to shed further light on supermassive black holes. NICMOS features more capable infrared detectors and gave astronomers their first clear view of the universe at near infrared wavelengths between 0.8 and 2.5 micrometers. EVA 2 began at 10:25 pm, 14 February, and lasted seven hours, 27 minutes. Harbaugh and Tanner replaced a degraded Fine Guidance Sensor and a failed Engineering and Science Tape Recorder with new spares. Also installed was a new unit called the Optical Control Electronics Enhancement Kit, which further increased the capability of the Fine Guidance Sensor. During this EVA astronauts noted cracking and wear on thermal insulation on the side of HST facing sun and in the direction of travel. EVA 3 began at 9:53 pm, 15 February, and lasted seven hours, 11 minutes. Lee and Smith removed and replaced a Data Interface Unit on Hubble, as well as a reel-to-reel Engineering and Science Tape Recorder with a new digital Solid State Recorder (SSR) that allowed simultaneous recording and playback of data. Also changed out was one of four Reaction Wheel Assembly units that use spin momentum to move telescope toward a target and maintain it in a stable position. After this EVA, mission managers decided to add EVA 5 to repair the thermal insulation on HST. EVA 4 began at 10:45 pm, 16 February, and lasted six hours, 34 minutes. Harbaugh and Tanner replaced a Solar Array Drive Electronics package which controls the positioning of Hubble's solar arrays. Also replaced covers over Hubble's magnetometers and placed thermal blankets of multi-layer material over two areas of degraded insulation around the light shield portion of the telescope just below the top of the observatory. Meanwhile, inside Discovery Horowitz and Lee worked on the middeck to fabricate new insulation blankets for HST. Final space walk, EVA 5, lasted five hours, 17 minutes. Lee and Smith attached several thermal insulation blankets to three equipment compartments at the top of the Support Systems Module section of the telescope which contain key data processing, electronics and scientific instrument telemetry packages. STS-82 EVA total of 33 hours, 11 minutes is about two hours shy of total EVA time recorded on first servicing mission. Discovery's maneuvering jets fired several times during mission to reboost telescope's orbit by eight nautical miles. Hubble was redeployed on 19 February at 1:41 am, into a by orbit. Initial checkout of new instruments and equipment during mission showed all were performing nominally. Calibration of the two new science instruments took place over a period of several weeks, with first images and data anticipated in about eight to ten weeks.

Wake-up calls

NASA began a tradition of playing music to astronauts during the

Gemini program Project Gemini () was NASA's second human spaceflight program. Conducted between projects Mercury and Apollo, Gemini started in 1961 and concluded in 1966. The Gemini spacecraft carried a two-astronaut crew. Ten Gemini crews and 16 individual ...

, which was first used to wake up a flight crew during

Apollo 15 Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program and the fourth to Moon landing, land on the Moon. It was the first List of Apollo missions#Alphabetical mission types, J mission, with a ...

. Each track is specially chosen, often by their families, and usually has a special meaning to an individual member of the crew, or is applicable to their daily activities.

Summary of instruments exchange

(NICMOS) replaces

(GHRS) *

(STIS) replaced

(FOS)

References

External links

NASA mission summary

{{DEFAULTSORT:STS-082 Spacecraft launched in 1997 Hubble Space Telescope servicing missions Space Shuttle missions