STS-82

Ken Bowersox

• Birthday: 11/14/1956
• Role: Commander
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 06/25/1992
• Last Flight: 11/23/2002

Kenneth Dwane “Sox” Bowersox is a United States Navy officer, and a former NASA astronaut. He is a veteran of five Space Shuttle launches and an extended stay aboard the International Space Station. When he launched on STS-73 at the age of 38 years and 11 months, he became the youngest person ever to command a Space Shuttle vehicle.

Scott Horowitz

• Birthday: 03/24/1957
• Role: Pilot
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 02/22/1996
• Last Flight: 08/10/2001

Scott Jay “Doc” Horowitz is a retired American astronaut and a veteran of four space shuttle missions. Horowitz was selected as an astronaut candidate by NASA in 1992, and piloted missions STS-75 (1996), STS-82 (1997) and STS-101 (2000). He commanded mission STS-105 (2001), a visit to the International Space Station for equipment and crew transfer.

Gregory Harbaugh

• Birthday: 04/15/1956
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 04/28/1991
• Last Flight: 02/11/1997

Gregory Jordan Harbaugh is a former NASA astronaut that spent 34 days in space through four Space Shuttle missions including the first . docking missions with the Russian Space Station Mir and the second Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission.

Joseph R. Tanner

• Birthday: 01/21/1950
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 11/03/1994
• Last Flight: 09/09/2006

Joseph Richard “Joe” Tanner is an American instructor at the University of Colorado Boulder, mechanical engineer, a former naval officer and aviator, and a former NASA astronaut. He was born in Danville, Illinois. He is unusual among astronauts as he did not have a background in flight test nor did he earn any advanced academic degrees. Typically those who did not do military flight test have an M.D. or Ph.D., if not a master’s, whereas Tanner’s path to becoming an astronaut followed operational military flying and then into NASA for operational jet training before being selected into the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1992, following an unsuccessful application in 1987.

Mark C. Lee

• Birthday: 08/14/1952
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 05/04/1989
• Last Flight: 02/11/1997

Mark Charles Lee USAF Colonel is a former NASA astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions. He retired from the Air Force and NASA on July 1, 2001.

Steven Smith

• Birthday: 12/30/1958
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 09/30/1994
• Last Flight: 04/08/2002

Steven Lee Smith is an American technology executive and former NASA astronaut, being a veteran of four space flights covering 16 million miles and seven space walks totaling 49 hours and 25 minutes. Smith’s spacewalk time places him in the top ten on the all-time American and World spacewalk duration lists.

Steven Hawley

• Birthday: 12/12/1951
• Role: Mission Specialist
• Nationality: American
• First Flight: 08/30/1984
• Last Flight: 07/23/1999

Steven Alan Hawley is a former NASA astronaut who flew on five U.S. Space Shuttle flights. He is professor of physics and astronomy and director of engineering physics at the University of Kansas.

Following an aborted attempt to launch STS-41-D where two main engines were stopped shortly after they started because the third failed to start, Hawley is reported to have broken the tense atmosphere in the shuttle cabin, saying, “I thought we’d be a lot higher at MECO!”

STS-82

• Type: Astrophysics
• Orbit: Low Earth Orbit
• Launch Cost: $450,000,000

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 and achieved the highest altitude ever attained by a STS Orbiter (335-nautical-mile (620 km)).

Launch Complex 39A

Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA

Launch Complex 39A has witnessed the launch of 174 rockets, including 173 orbital launch attempts, while Kennedy Space Center, FL, USA, has been the site for 232 rocket launches.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Space Shuttle

The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program name was Space Transportation System (STS). Five complete Space Shuttle orbiter vehicles were built and flown on a total of 135 missions from 1981 to 2011.