STS-82 Day 7 Highlights

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On Monday, February 17, 1997, 5:30 a.m. CST, STS-82 MCC Status Report # 13 reports:

Following the completion of a 6 hour, 34 minute spacewalk by astronauts Greg Harbaugh and Joe Tanner early this morning, the replacement and installation of all the science and engineering components for the Hubble Space Telescope have been completed.

Harbaugh and Tanner began their second spacewalk and the fourth of the mission by emerging from Discovery's airlock at 9:45 p.m. Central time Sunday night. Their first task was the replacement of a Solar Array Drive Electronics package which is used to control the positioning of Hubble's solar arrays. Harbaugh and Tanner next ventured to the top of the telescope where they replaced covers over Hubble's magnetometers, which are used to sense the telescope's position in relation to the Earth through data acquired from the Earth's magnetic field. The spacewalking astronauts then 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 astronomical observatory. The astronauts had trained for the repair work before the flight in the event such repairs would be needed.

While Harbaugh and Tanner were finishing up their work in the payload bay, Pilot Scott Horowitz and Payload Commander Mark Lee were busy on Discovery's middeck fabricating additional thermal insulation blankets that will be installed on the telescope during a fifth spacewalk planned for late tonight. The additional spacewalk by Lee and spacewalking teammate Steve Smith was incorporated into the mission timeline to shore up weathered insulation covering three equipment bays along the top of the Support Systems Module section of Hubble housing key data processing, electronics and scientific instrument telemetry packages. The fifth spacewalk is expected to last around four hours.

Harbaugh and Tanner returned to Discovery's airlock at 4:19 a.m. this morning, bringing the total spacewalking time for the mission to 27 hours and 54 minutes over the past four days.

Because of the additional spacewalk, the final firing of the steering jets to reboost Hubble to its deployment altitude will occur at the end of the final spacewalk tomorrow morning with the deployment of Hubble now set for 12:41 A.M. Central time Wednesday morning. Discovery's landing at the Kennedy Space Center.is scheduled for the predawn hours Friday morning.

The crew will begin an eight-hour sleep period at 9:25 a.m. this morning and will be awakened at 5:25 p.m. to begin preparations for the final spacewalk of the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

Discovery continues to orbit the Earth in excellent condition at an altitude of 374 statute miles.

On Monday, February 17, 1997, 5:30 p.m. CST, STS-82 MCC Status Report # 14 reports:

With all scheduled telescope work completed, two astronauts will go into the payload bay of Discovery one more time tonight to install extra protection over some aging insulation on the Hubble Space Telescope.

Mission specialists Mark Lee and Steve Smith are expected to spend about four hours working to add several thermal insulation blankets to the three areas along the top of the Support Systems Module section of Hubble housing key data processing, electronics and scientific instrument telemetry packages. Specifically, the work will be done on bay 7, which holds electronics and mechanisms for the solar arrays; bay 8, which contains pointing electronics and a Retrieval Mode Gyro Assembly; and bay 10, which houses the Science Instrument Control and Data Handling Subsystems.

Mission managers added the fifth space walk to the flight plan on Saturday because of Hubble managers' concerns about several separations in the external insulation on the observatory. Hubble managers were concerned that the separated areas could trap light and cause localized heating, damaging Hubble's sensitive systems.

Because of the additional extravehicular activity, the final firing of the steering jets to reboost Hubble to its deployment altitude (333 by 320 nautical miles) will occur at the end of tonight's spacewalk. Deployment of Hubble is now set for 12:41 a.m. CST Wednesday morning.

All the instruments installed by the STS-82 crew during the first four spacewalks have been checked by the HST controllers and all verification tests look good. The final check outs will take place once Hubble is again flying on its own.

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