Celsius Mission STS-116 VNR

The launch of Space Shuttle Discovery Flight STS-116 scheduled for the night of 7-8 December will bring Swedish ESA astronaut Christer Fuglesang to the ISS. This is possibly the most difficult flight among complex missions to complete the ISS in orbit. With the arrival of STS-116, German ESA astronaut and ISS resident crew member Thomas Reiter will be replaced by Sunita Williams from NASA. Reiter will be returning back to Earth on the Shuttle together with Christer Fuglesang, after nearly six months in space. The main objective of Flight STS-116 is to put into service two huge electricity-generating solar array panels, already onboard the station since September 2006. Switching this new electrical system on is a very difficult and complex task which requires Fuglesang and his NASA counterpart Robert Curbeam to perform two "spacewalks" to rewire one half of the station each. Today's Video News Release provides all the background footage - including English soundbites by Fuglesang - to cover the story.