Sweden’ first astronaut Christer Fuglesang comes to Bangkok

5 November 2015 will be an auspicious date for both Thais and Swedes in Thailand when KTH (Royal Institute of Technology) Alumni welcomes Sweden’s first and only astronaut Christer Fuglesang to Bangkok!

KTH Alumni, in collaboration with the Thai-Swedish Chamber of commerce will host Fuglesang at the monthly networking at Huntsman’s Pub, Landmark Hotel. An evening ‘Inspired by space’ will be preceded by a seminar at the hotel’s meeting floor.

Astronaut-Christer-Fuglesang
Photo courtesy of ESA

Christer Fuglesang is famous for being the first Swede to having travelled to space.

The Swedish astronaut is an adjunct professor in Space Physics since April 2013, on secondment from the European Space Agency, ESA. He also works part time for the Swedish National Space Board (Rymdstyrelsen). At KTH he has a leading role in the university’s space activities and is director of KTH Space Center, which started in March 2014.

Being responsible for the Aerospace Engineering Master program, he also teaches the course Human Space Flight.

Another of his tasks is to work with the marketing of space science and technology. It plays an important role when it comes to recruiting students to KTH, promoting interest in technology among young people and strengthening KTH’s brand.

Fuglesang’s research is related to particles in space: radiation on the International Space Station (ISS) since many years, and lately e joined a project to put an experiment on ISS to study ultra-high energy cosmic rays: JEM-EUSO.

From 9 to 22 December 2006, Christer Fuglesang flew as Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Discovery for STS-116 to the International Space Station. He became the first Swedish astronaut to fly in space. During his Celsius mission, Christer conducted three spacewalks. His tasks were to attach new hardware to the Station and to reconfigure the Station’s electrical power system. The unscheduled third spacewalk freed the Station’s jammed P6 solar array. His total spacewalk time during the mission was 18 hours 14 minutes.

Christer‘s second spaceflight lasted from 29 August to 12 September 2009. He was Mission Specialist on Space Shuttle Discovery for STS-128 to the International Space Station. On this Alissé mission, Christer made two spacewalks, installing an ammonia tank and preparing for the installation of the European-built Node-3 module. He spent 13 hours and 40 minutes spacewalking, bringing his total time spent spacewalking to 31 hours and 54 minutes.

Christer Fuglesang became a degree in engineering physics from the Royal Institute of Technology in 1981.

About Joakim Persson

Freelance business and lifestyle photojournalist

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