STS-82

STS-82 was the 22nd flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery and the 82nd mission of the Space Shuttle program. This mission was very important because it was the second time NASA visited the Hubble Space Telescope. The crew of Discovery went to fix and improve the telescope’s tools, which helped it do even better science.

The shuttle took off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on February 11, 1997. After doing its work on the telescope, Discovery came back to Earth on February 21, 1997, landing again at Kennedy Space Center. This mission showed how people can travel to space to help machines far away, making them work better for everyone.

Crew

The Discovery had a crew of seven people for the STS-82 mission.

Spacewalks

There were five spacewalks during the mission:

• EVA 1 by Lee and Smith
  • Start: February 14, 1997 – 04:34 UTC
  • End: February 14, 1997 – 11:16 UTC
  • Duration: 6 hours, 42 minutes
• EVA 2 by Harbaugh and Tanner
  • Start: February 15, 1997 – 03:25 UTC
  • End: February 15, 1997 – 10:52 UTC
  • Duration: 7 hours, 27 minutes
• EVA 3 by Lee and Smith
  • Start: February 16, 1997 – 02:53 UTC
  • End: February 16, 1997 – 10:04 UTC
  • Duration: 7 hours, 11 minutes
• EVA 4 by Harbaugh and Tanner
  • Start: February 17, 1997 – 03:45 UTC
  • End: February 17, 1997 – 10:19 UTC
  • Duration: 6 hours, 34 minutes
• EVA 5 by Lee and Smith
  • Start: February 18, 1997 – 03:15 UTC
  • End: February 18, 1997 – 08:32 UTC
  • Duration: 5 hours, 17 minutes

Crew seat assignments

Seat	Launch	Landing	Seats 1–4 are on the flight deck. Seats 5–7 are on the mid-deck.
1	Bowersox
2	Horowitz
3	Tanner	Harbaugh
4	Hawley
5	Harbaugh	Tanner
6	Lee
7	Smith

Mission objectives

The STS-82 mission was the second time astronauts visited the Hubble Space Telescope to help it work better. The telescope had been launched into space in 1990 by the shuttle Discovery on STS-31. The crew of Discovery made the telescope much better at doing science and kept it running well until the next visits in 1999 on STS-103 and in 2002 on STS-109.

During the mission, the seven astronauts did four spacewalks to swap out two old instruments for two new ones. They replaced the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph and the Faint Object Spectrograph with the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS).

The astronauts also updated other parts of the telescope. They fixed the Fine Guidance Sensor, a special tool that helps the telescope point correctly. They swapped out old tape recorders for new, faster ones that can store much more information. They also replaced one of the telescope's spinning wheels that help it move and stay steady in space. This gave scientists a chance to study how the old parts worked after seven years in space.

Mission results

STS-82 showed how the Space Shuttle could help fix satellites in space. The crew of Discovery fixed and upgraded the Hubble Space Telescope during several space walks, including one extra walk to fix the telescope's covering.

The Hubble telescope was sent into space in 1990 and was meant to be fixed and updated during its time up there. The crew brought new tools and parts to replace old ones, improving the telescope's ability to see far into space. They changed out old cameras and added new ones that could see heat and faraway objects better. They also fixed parts that help the telescope move and point correctly, and added new covers to keep it safe from the sun's heat. After all the work, Hubble was sent back into its orbit, and the new parts worked well.

Wake-up calls

NASA started a fun tradition of playing music for astronauts during the Gemini program. This was first used to wake up the crew during Apollo 15.

Each song is picked specially, often by the astronauts' families. The music usually has a special meaning for someone on the crew or relates to what they are doing each day in space.

Summary of instruments exchange

The crew of the Space Shuttle Discovery swapped two important tools on the Hubble Space Telescope during their visit. They put in a new tool called the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) to take pictures and study objects using infrared light. They also added the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) to help the telescope see more clearly and study stars and planets. In exchange, they removed two older tools: the Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph (GHRS) and the Faint Object Spectrograph (FOS). These changes helped make the telescope even better at discovering new things about space.