Malaysians to watch its first astronaut blast into space

Malaysia’s first astronaut, a Muslim, has vowed to keep praying and fasting in space.

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor will be blasted into space later today aboard a Russian rocket bound for the International Space Station.

Malaysian newspapers have devoted several pages and published special pull-outs about the mission, which coincides with the last days of Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims fast from dawn until sundown.

Sheikh Muszaphar wrote in his web journal yesterday that he “definitely would be praying and fasting in space,” even though Malaysian clerics decreed he can be excused from fasting.

“I am not sure how it would be done but I will share my experiences (with) all the Muslims all over the world when I get back,” Sheikh Muszaphar wrote.

Islam requires that he face Mecca for prayer – a direction that will change as the craft orbits the earth – but clerics decided the exact location matters only for the start of the ritual.

Television networks are planning a live broadcast of Sheikh Shukor lifting off in a Soyuz-FG rocket, adorned with a Malaysian flag, from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

“I am very happy that our man has been chosen to join this special mission into space,” Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said. “I hope he will do well.”

Sheikh Muszaphar will be accompanied by American Peggy Whitson and Russian Yuri Malenchenko during the 12-day stay on the space station to conduct scientific experiments.

Sheikh Muszaphar, a 35-year-old physician, beat more than 11,000 applicants in a nationwide search that began in 2003 to be Malaysia’s first astronaut.

He said he was taking vacuum-packed Malaysian food, including skewered chicken, banana rolls, fermented soybean cakes and ginger jelly, to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, in space.

“I hope to ... share them with the rest of the cosmonauts,” he wrote. “I am hoping to introduce Malaysian culture and tradition to the whole world.”

Sheikh Muszaphar – a bachelor widely regarded as a heartthrob due to his handsome looks – is to experiment with microbes of tropical diseases and with proteins for a potential HIV vaccine, and study the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cancer cells and human genes.

The agreement for a Malaysian to fly to space was negotiated in 2003 with a deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian fighter jets.

Sheikh Muszaphar, who underwent months of training in Russia, is expected to return on October 21 with two Russian members of the current space station crew.