Viroqua native Mark Lee says he gets around more than usual lately.

In the sense that Lee will be giving speeches to students in five different locations throughout Wisconsin this month, that is a lot of traveling. However, compared to the more than 13 million miles he traveled above the earth as a NASA astronaut, it’s a proverbial drop in the bucket.

Lee’s ties to NASA and the space program remain strong. Although he retired from active duty in 2001, he was at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, May 11, for the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. Atlantis and the shuttle crew were making the final maintenance flight to the venerable Hubble Space Telescope. The last of Lee’s four space shuttle flights was in 1997, during which he conducted three spacewalks totaling more than 19 hours while fixing and upgrading the Hubble’s equipment.

Lee, and other astronauts who previously worked on the Hubble, were at the space center’s visitor center as the launch took place.

Lee said his connection to the Hubble has been humbling.

"When you consider what (the Hubble) has done for science, our understanding of the solar system and our knowledge of the universe, I’m glad to have been able to work on such a project," Lee said.

The awe-inspiring photos that the public knows well aren’t necessarily the things about the Hubble that impress Lee.

"One of the things that goes beyond the pictures is the deep field view that we get from the Hubble, that gathers light from 13 billion years, you’re looking back on light that appeared shortly after the formation of the universe," Lee said.

The Hubble, which is considered "better than new" following five days of repairs and upgrades last week, is not to be seen up close by humans again. The 19-year-old observatory, which at first was a national punch line, has, through its series of repairs and upgrades, improved into what NASA’s mission control last week called "the most famous scientific instrument of all time."

NASA hopes to get five to 10 more years out of the Hubble before it is replaced. After that happens, around 2020, the Hubble will eventually be towed by a robot into the earth’s atmosphere where its orbit will continue to decay until the giant telescope crashes into an ocean.

During last week’s trip to the Hubble, space shuttle crew members ran into problems Lee had previously encountered. Lee said the Hubble had screws and bolts that had nickel plating on them when it was built. That plating has started to flake off in space and has made turning some of the bolts difficult.

"It was a lesson learned on the metal that was used," Lee said.

Still the repairs went well. Atlantis left the Hubble on Tuesday and the space shuttle is to land on Friday.

Friday will mark a couple of important milestones for Lee.

First of all, it’s his mother’s, birthday. Lee’s parents are Charlie and Ruth Lee of Viroqua.

"Happy Birthday, Mom," Lee said. "We’ll be up to visit this weekend."

Lee and his wife, Paula, live in Middleton. They have three boys, Erik, Matthew and Jonathon.

In addition to it being his mother’s birthday, Friday is important for another reason. It will mark 25 years to the day that he was accepted into NASA’s astronaut program.

He currently works for Affiliated Engineers of Madison, which participates in high-end building projects with advanced environmental controls. In addition to developing workspace at Kennedy Space Center for NASA to be used to develop new space vehicles, Affiliated Engineers is also working on the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery being constructed on the campus of UW-Madison, Lee said.

"I’m taking some of what I learned in my career at NASA and I’m able to implement ideas into these new projects," Lee said. "I also appreciate getting out more often to talk to students at schools. I had been doing about a dozen a year, but with five in the month of May, that’s better."

Lee is a 1970 graduate of Viroqua High School and a 1974 graduate of the Air Force Academy. He received a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1980 and is a retired colonel from the U.S. Air Force.