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.

FMI: www.esa.int, www.nasa.gov