STS-82 Day 2 Highlights

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On Wednesday, February 12, 1997, 6:30 a.m. CST, STS-82 MCC Status Report # 3 reports:

Discovery's seven astronauts spent their first full day on orbit preparing for tomorrow's retrieval of the Hubble Space Telescope by checking out the Shuttle's robot arm, surveying the payload bay worksites and testing the spacesuits that will be used for the four planned spacewalks beginning Thursday night.

Using the Shuttle's 50-foot remote manipulator system, Mission Specialist Steve Hawley conducted a survey of the payload bay while putting the arm through its paces to verify it's health in support the capture of the telescope, which is scheduled at 1:50 A.M. Central time tomorrow.

The crew cabin's atmospheric pressure was lowered to reduce the amount of time required to prebreathe oxygen prior to the spacewalks to be conducted by Mark Lee, Steve Smith, Greg Harbaugh and Joe Tanner. Those spacewalks are scheduled to occur on consecutive nights beginning Thursday at about 10:20 p.m.

To prepare for the spacewalks, the astronauts assembled on the middeck to checkout all of the tools they will use while servicing the telescope. They successfully tested the spacesuits they will wear while working around and in Hubble in the open cargo bay.

Commander Ken Bowersox and Pilot Scott Horowitz conducted additional rendezvous maneuvers this morning, designed to adjust Discovery's closing rate on the telescope so the Shuttle will arrive about 2400 feet below Hubble an hour before its scheduled retrieval in the morning. At 6 A.M., Discovery was less than a thousand miles behind the telescope and closing at the preplanned rate.

The astronauts are scheduled to begin an eight hour sleep period at about 9:30 this morning and will receive a wakeup call from Mission Control at 5:25 this afternoon to begin rendezvous activities.

Discovery continues to orbit the Earth at an altitude of 360 statute miles will all of this systems in excellent shape.

On Wednesday, February 12, 1997, 5:00 p.m. CST, STS-82 MCC Status Report # 4 reports:

With its aperture door closed and antennas secure, the Hubble Space Telescope is standing by to be plucked from its orbit for servicing by the STS-82 crew.

Tonight, Commander Ken Bowersox and Pilot Scott Horowitz will perform the final series of thruster firings to bring the Space Shuttle Discovery within robot arm's reach of the orbiting telescope. The maneuver that signals the final stage of the rendezvous, known as the Terminal Initiation or."TI burn," will occur shortly after midnight in Houston. Then, as the orbiter approaches, Bowersox will control firing of the steering jets to make sure they do not contaminate the sensitive HST instruments.

When Discovery and HST are close enough, Mission Specialist Steve Hawley will use the orbiter's robot arm to gently capture the telescope and pull it to its work platform in the payload bay. Grapple is scheduled for 2:15 a.m. CST and berthing will occur at approximately 3 a.m. Astronauts will then use the cameras on the robot arm and in the payload bay to give Hubble's ground control team a chance to inspect the exterior of the telescope for the first time since the first servicing mission in 1993.

The tools and systems needed for the rendezvous operations and the four six-hour spacewalks were checked by crew members during the second day of the mission. All systems are ready to support the servicing operations.

The first of the spacewalks is set to begin at about 10:20 p.m. Thursday night with astronauts Mark Lee and Steve Smith serving as the EVA crew members. Lee and Smith will perform the first and third spacewalks while astronauts Greg Harbaugh and Joe Tanner perform the second and fourth.

The crew will start the third day of the mission at 5:25 p.m. CST as Discovery moves 60 n.m. closer to HST every time it orbits the Earth.

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