KSC-97pc355

Accompanied by former astronaut Michael J. McCulley, several members of the STS-82 crew look at thermal protection system tile under the Space Shuttle Discovery on the runway at the Shuttle Landing Facility shortly after the conclusion of a 10-day mission to service the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope (HST). From left to right, they are Mission Specialist Steven A. Hawley; Michael J. McCulley, currently vice president and associate program manager for ground operations for the United Space Alliance at KSC; Mission Specialists Joseph R. "Joe" Tanner and Steven L. Smith (back to camera); and Payload Commander Mark C. Lee. STS-82 is the ninth Shuttle nighttime landing, and the fourth nighttime landing at KSC. The seven-member crew performed a record-tying five back-to-back extravehicular activities (EVAs) or spacewalks to service the telescope, which has been in orbit for nearly seven years. Two new scientific instruments were installed, replacing two outdated instruments. Five spacewalks also were performed on the first servicing mission, STS-61, in December 1993. Only four spacewalks were scheduled for STS-82, but a fifth one was added during the flight to install several thermal blankets over some aging insulation covering three HST compartments containing key data processing, electronics and scientific instrument telemetry packages. STS-82 was the 82nd Space Shuttle flight and the second mission of 1997