Fri, Dec 01, 2006
ESA's Christer Fuglesang Part Of STS-116
ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang is about to become the first
Swedish and the first Nordic astronaut in space. On the night of
December 7, he will board NASA's Shuttle Discovery as a mission
specialist aboard STS-116.
With his six crewmates, he will fly to the International Space
Station on a mission to add a new section to its truss structure
and to reroute electrical power supply and thermal control from its
new set of solar arrays and radiators.
As Aero-News reported,
Discovery is scheduled to lift off from NASA's Kennedy Space Center
in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 09:36 EST next Thursday. Docking with
the ISS is scheduled for two days later.
Once onboard the Space Station, Fuglesang (above) will meet up
with fellow ESA astronaut Thomas Reiter from Germany, who has been
a permanent crew member since 6 July. This will be the first time
that two ESA astronauts have flown together on the same ISS
mission. Both will return to Earth onboard Discovery at the end of
its 12-day assignment.
During his stay onboard, Fuglesang will perform two
extra-vehicular activities (EVAs), of the three scheduled on this
mission.
Dubbed "Celsius" after the famous Swedish scientist and
astronomer Anders Celsius (1701-1744), Fuglesang's mission will
also involve conducting a number of European experiments in the
areas of human physiology and radiation dosimetry, as well as a
series of experiments in those same areas geared to educational
purposes.
With the European Celsius mission, ESA confirms its role as a
major contributor to the ISS program and assembly effort.
Set to follow in Fuglesang's footsteps, a number of other ESA
astronauts are already training for future ISS assembly missions.
Next to go will be Paolo Nespoli of Italy on STS-120 carrying the
European-built Node 2 module in September 2007, and Hans Schlegel
of Germany on STS-122 on a mission devoted to installing ESA's
Columbus laboratory in October 2007.
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