Christer Fuglesang uses a digital still camera to expose a photo of his helmet visor during the mission’s fourth session of extravehicular activity (EVA) while Space Shuttle Discovery was docked with the International Space Station.

After waiting 14 years for his first flight into space, Sweden’s first astronaut says he will be returning to Earth orbit within the next couple of years.

The online edition of Chef (a journal for executives, not cooks) reports that Fuglesang announced at a “Competence Breakfast” in Stockholm Thursday that he has been told by the European Space Agency that he is ESA’s number one candidate for a new mission. The date for the space shuttle flight is being discussed between ESA and NASA.

According to Fuglesang: “The ESA wants the mission to be at the end of next year, while NASA favors a later date. The shuttle is being pensioned off in 2010. My best guess is that it will be the middle of 2009.”

In an hour and a half talk, the Swedish astronaut said that space doesn’t scare him, but he was nervous during the TV broadcasts.
Fuglesang was on the STS-116 mission in December, including three space walks.