| | SpaceViews March 1997: News |
 | | In a series of five spacewalks spanning more than 30 hours, a team of astronauts on the shuttle Discovery last month successfully completed an extensive set of upgrades and repairs to the Hubble Space Telescope, including an unexpected patching of the telescope's insulation. |
 | | Engineers believe the foil has been weakened either by thermal cycling is the telescope goes in and out of the Earth's shadow twice per orbit, or by a combination of exposure to ultraviolet radiation and corrosive atomic oxygen. |
 | | After developing some makeshift patches in the shuttle, using strips of spare insulation, wires, tape, and alligator clips, Harbaugh and Tanner applied some of the patches to damaged areas near the top of the telescope near the end of the fourth spacewalk. |
| www.seds.org /spaceviews/9703/news.html (3512 words) |