STS-82
Report # 07 
 Friday, February 14, 1997, 6 A.M. CST 
 
  Astronauts Mark Lee and Steve Smith worked throughout the night in
the cargo bay of the Shuttle Discovery, conducting a spacewalk lasting
six hours and 42 minutes to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope, which
now contains new science instruments for an expanded view of the
universe.

  The first spacewalk of the second servicing mission of the Telescope
began at 10:34 p.m.  Central time Thursday night when Lee and Smith
switched their spacesuits over to battery power. The spacewalk was
slightly delayed to enable ground controllers to assess the unexpected
movement of one of Hubble's solar arrays, which slewed from a
horizontal to a vertical position as Discovery's airlock was
depressurized. The motion was created by an apparent gust of air from
the airlock, but caused no damage to the array which was repositioned
horizontally.

  Once outside, Lee and Smith went right to work, opening the aft
shroud doors on Hubble to remove the Goddard High Resolution
Spectrograph and the Faint Object Spectrograph.  The telephone-booth
sized instruments slid out of their compartments and were replaced by
two brand new instruments, the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph
and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer.  STIS was
installed in Hubble shortly before 1 a.m. Central time, followed
almost two hours later by the NICMOS. Payload controllers send
commands to check the health of the two instruments, which were
declared alive and well and ready for calibration over the next
several weeks. The aft shroud doors were finally closed as Lee and
Smith stowed the old science gear in protective containers for the
trip back to Earth. With their work successfully completed, Lee and
Smith returned to Discovery's airlock at 5:17 this morning to wrap up
the first of four planned excursions into the Shuttle's cargo bay.

  The two new instruments will increase Hubble's scientific
capabilities.  The STIS will take light gathered by the telescope and
separate it into spectral components so that the composition,
temperature, motion, and other chemical and physical properties of
astronomical objects can be measured.  NICMOS will allow Hubble to
take infrared observations of the universe, giving astronomers the
capability to view cosmic objects in non-visible light.

  Discovery's crew will begin an 8 hour sleep period at 9:25 a.m. CST
this morning before being awakened at 5:25 p.m. Upcoming on Flight Day
5 will be the second spacewalk of the mission by astronauts Greg
Harbaugh and Joe Tanner who will replace several engineering
components in Hubble.

  Discovery and the Hubble Space Telescope continue to orbit the Earth
every 90 minutes at an altitude of 370 statute miles with all of the
Shuttle's systems still operating in excellent condition.

  The next STS-82 status report will be issued at 5 p.m. this
afternoon.

# # #


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