Celsius Mission facts

ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang became the first Swedish astronaut in space when he launched with Space Shuttle Discovery on the STS-116 mission to the International Space Station (ISS).

A major part of Fuglesang's mission is to participate in two spacewalks together with fellow STS-116 astronaut Robert Curbeam.

During the first spacewalk the pair installed a new section of the truss - the Station's girder-like backbone structure. Their second spacewalk focussed on reconfiguring the Station's electrical and cooling systems. A third spacewalk, performed by Sunita Williams and Robert Curbeam completed the rewiring work.

Later in the mission an extra spacewalk was added to the timeline to help retract the P6 solar array which became jammed during retraction by remote control on Flight Day 5 - Fuglesang and Curbeam were assigned to take part in the extra spacewalk.

The decision to add an extra spacewalk extended the mission by one day, taking the duration of the Celsius Mission to 13 days.

During the Celsius Mission, Fuglesang also took part in experiment, educational and public relations activities.