Christer Fuglesang's space diary #1
1 day, 3 hours, 37 minutes. Two hours before sleeping-time. The first proper day in space! I have had a little more time to look down on Mother Earth: I saw the Amazonas, came in over India during the night and saw city light on the Arabian peninsula.
And lots of water and clouds. It is still a bit strange to have a sunrise and sunset every hour and a half, and to eat and go to the toilet in weightlessness. Still much to learn!
We have got the computer network in place, and TV and photo cameras. Checked the EVA-suits and packed everything that we will bring to the ISS for the spacewalks.
Nick, Roman (Mark Polansky) and BillyO spent a large part of the day inspecting the heat shields with the robotic arm and beam. Now ground control will analyse the images received. Tomorrow we dock with the ISS – here new fantastic events follow one after another all the time.
Whenever I get the opportunity I try to play around in weightlessness. For example, I do not hold on to anything when I eat, but I am floating and slowly spinning around. I try to fly straight from middeck to the Spacehab without touching anything – haven’t succeeded yet!
When you are upside-down for a while it is funny how it suddenly feels totally natural that the floor is the ceiling, and vice versa. The atmosphere is very good!!
