STS-82
The Hubble Space Telescope being serviced in Discovery's payload bay
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| Mission type | Hubble servicing |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 1997-004A |
| SATCAT № | 24719 |
| Mission duration | 9 days, 23 hours, 38 minutes, 09 seconds |
| Distance travelled | 10,500,000 kilometres (6,500,000 mi) |
| Orbits completed | 149 |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft | Space Shuttle Discovery |
| Payload mass | 83,122 kilograms (183,253 lb) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 7 |
| Members |
Kenneth D. Bowersox Scott J. Horowitz Joseph R. Tanner Steven A. Hawley Gregory J. Harbaugh Mark C. Lee Steven L. Smith |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | 11 February 1997, 08:55:17 UTC |
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A |
| End of mission | |
| Landing date | 21 February 1997, 08:32 UTC |
| Landing site | Kennedy SLF Runway 15 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Reference system | Geocentric |
| Regime | Low Earth |
| Perigee | 475 kilometres (295 mi) |
| Apogee | 574 kilometres (357 mi) |
| Inclination | 28.4698 degrees |
| Period | 95.2 min |
| Capture of Hubble | |
| RMS capture | 13 February 1997, 08:34 UTC |
| RMS release | 19 February 1997, 06:41 UTC |
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 Left to right - Front: Bowersox, Hawley, Horowitz; Back: Tanner, Harbaugh, Lee, Smith |
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STS-82 was the 22nd flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery and the 82nd mission of the Space Shuttle program. It was NASA's second mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope, during which Discovery's crew repaired and upgraded the telescope's scientific instruments, increasing its research capabilities. Discovery launched from Kennedy Space Center, Florida, on 11 February 1997, returning to Earth on 21 February 1997 at Kennedy Space Center.
The STS-82 mission was the second in a series of planned servicing missions to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope ("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. 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 in 1999 and STS-109 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 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 and the Faint Object Spectrograph, exchanged for the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS), respectively.
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