LAPLAND, Sweden—When the space shuttle Discovery takes off for outer space on Aug. 6, Swedish astronaut Christer Fuglesang—the first, and so far only Swede in space—will be on board with a silver spoon.
All astronauts will bring a few tokens and memorial items. One of the trinkets Fuglesang will take along is a silver spoon made by the Sami, an indigenous people of northern Europe.
When Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961, rocket science was already being taught in Sweden. The first rocket was launched in 1961, close to the Sami village of Nausta in the northernmost part of Sweden, with deep, untouched forests.
Last summer, Fuglesang was invited to a space-related event in Lapland and became acquainted with Sami culture. During that visit, he became aware of how big a part of the Swedish space program the Sami had been from the very start.
"There has been close cooperation between the corporation that runs the space program and the Sami, to handle all kinds of practical problems,” Fuglesang writes in his newsletter.
The silver spoon he will bring into space was made by Sami craftsman Per Henrik Påve. It's a small salt spoon that can also be hung from a necklace and worn as a piece of jewelry.
To find a representative gift from Sametinget (the Sami parliament), a competition was announced and won by Påve, whose spoon is now their official gift.
"The Sami culture is a unique part of both the cultural heritage of Sweden and of our neighboring countries, Norway and Finland. I am very happy and proud that Sametinget wanted us to bring this beautiful silver spoon," wrote Fuglesang.
After the journey into space, the spoon will be returned to Sametinget together with a certificate stating that it has traveled into space aboard the Discovery.
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