Malaysia to launch brew on space mission

MALAYSIA plans to push the boundaries of space travel — making tea.

Malaysia will send its first astronaut into the heavens aboard a Russian rocket next year and attempt for the first time to make the nation’s favourite hot drink, teh tarik, in space.

“The physics experiment is to see what happens to teh tarik in space,” said Haniff Omar, head of Malaysia’s astronaut selection programme.

Making teh tarik (pulled tea) can be tricky, even with gravity. Malaysians pour boiling-hot milky tea swiftly and repeatedly from one vessel held high in one hand into another held low, producing a layer of froth.

Making teh tarik in space would bring Malaysian customs to the attention of a worldwide audience, said Faiz Khaleed, one of the two astronaut candidates.

“I think this is a good idea also to bring something from our country so the world can learn something about our country,” he said.

Russia offered Malaysia a free trip into space aboard a Soyuz spacecraft three years ago to sweeten the $900-million (€700 million) sale of Russian-made fighter planes.

Nearly 12,000 Malaysians applied to be an astronaut. On Monday, Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi named medical doctor Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor and Faiz, a military dentist, as the two finalists.