Suddenly spirits, space cadets and visionaries are walking around like so many turned-on light bulbs.

During the 11-day flight, the HST was captured and restored to full capacity through a record five space walks by four astronauts.

The astronauts also made two space walks last month, the first to repair damage the spacecraft received on takeoff.

The current plan is for space walks to be done exclusively in shuttle suits, and then only when the winged spaceship is docked to the station.

The repair mission, which has been proposed for early 1993, would require three six-hour space walks by two-member crews.

The crew performed three space walks to return Hubble to science operations with several upgraded subsystems.

They marketed the space walks to children's events such as birthday parties, school fairs and company picnics.

The new approach should reduce the amount of time required for space walks by more than 50 percent, Mr. Lenoir said.

NASA plans to practice space walks on three more shuttle missions; the next one will be this spring.

Both the international space station and earlier American designs have been criticized for requiring too many space walks to build and maintain.