List of Muslims enclosed who travelled to space.
| Country | Name | Mission (Launch Date) | Comment |
| | Sultan Salman Al Saud | STS-51-G (June 17, 1985) | First Arab, and first Muslim in space |
| Muhammed Faris | Mir EP-1 (July 22, 1987) | First Syrian in space |
| Musa Manarov | Mir EO-3 (December 21, 1987) | Total of 541 days in space |
| Abdul Ahad Mohmand | Mir EP-3 (August 29, 1988) | First Afghan in space |
| Toktar Aubakirov | Soyuz TM-13 (October 2, 1991) | |
| Talgat Musabayev | Soyuz TM-19 (November 4, 1994) | Total of 341 days in space |
| Salizhan Sharipov | STS-89 (January 20, 1998) | Total of 201 days in space |
| Anousheh Ansari | Soyuz TMA-9 (September 18, 2006) | First female space tourist |
| Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor | Soyuz TMA-11 (October 10, 2007) | First Malaysian in space |
Rakesh Sharma - first Indian to travel into space - No significant contribution to space science
Kalpana Chawla - first Indian woman to travel into space and also first Indian to perish in space - No significant contribution to space science other than a few experiments conducted on the space shuttle
Sunita Williams - Longest unbroken space flight by a woman. Sunita surpassed the record of 188 days and 4 hours set by Shannon Lucid in 1996.
Sunita who is aboard the International Space Station also set the record for the longest female spacewalk at 22 hours 27 minutes.
Among 400, people Eight Indians who have spent $200,000 each to book a seat on a two-hour flight to space they are not called as Astronauts.
List of All 518 Astronauts
518 humans from 38 countries have gone into space according to the FAI guideline, (524 people have qualified when including the Department of Defense classification). Of those totals, 3 people completed only a sub-orbital flight, 515 people reached Earth orbit, 24 traveled beyond low Earth orbit and 12 walked on the Moon.
· Names in italic are space travelers who have left Low Earth orbit.
· A * before a name indicates that the person died during spaceflight and never came home.
1. Joseph M. Acaba
2. Loren Acton
3. James Adamson
4. Viktor M. Afanasyev
5. Thomas Akers
6. Toyohiro Akiyama, the first business-sponsored space traveler and the first Japanese in space.
7. Vladimir Aksyonov
8. Sultan Salman Al Saud, first Saudi Arabian in space, only royal person in space, first Middle Eastern person in space.
9. Edwin Buzz Aldrin (born 1930), flew on Apollo 11 and was the second person to walk on the Moon.
10. Aleksandr Panayotov Aleksandrov
11. Aleksandr Pavlovich Aleksandrov
12. Andrew M. Allen
13. Joseph P. Allen
14. Scott Altman
15. William Anders, first Asian-born person in space. (Anders was born in Hong Kong, but was an American citizen.)
16. Clayton Anderson
17. *Michael P. Anderson, (1959-2003), died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
18. Anousheh Ansari (born 1966), fourth spaceflight participant and first female spaceflight participant, first female Muslim in space, and first Iranian in space.
19. Dominic A. Antonelli
20. Jerome Apt
21. Lee Archambault
22. Neil Armstrong (born 1930), flew on Apollo 11 and was the first person to walk on the Moon.
23. Richard R. Arnold
24. Anatoly Artsebarsky
25. Yuri Artyukhin (1930-1998)
26. Jeffrey Ashby
27. Oleg Atkov
28. Toktar Aubakirov, first Kazakh born person in space.
29. Sergei Avdeyev
30. James Bagian
31. Ellen Baker
32. Michael Baker
33. Aleksandr Balandin
34. Michael Barratt
35. Daniel Barry
36. John-David F. Bartoe
37. Yuri Baturin, first Russian politician in space.
38. Patrick Baudry, first African-born man and second Frenchman in space
39. Alan Bean, flew on Apollo 12 and was the fourth person to walk on the Moon.
40. Robert L. Behnken
41. Ivan Bella, first Slovak in space.
42. Pavel Belyayev (1925-1970)
43. Georgi Beregovoi (1921-1995), earliest-born person to go into space.
44. Anatoli Berezovoy
45. Brian Binnie, second commercial (launched by a private company) astronaut. Suborbital flight only.
46. John Blaha
47. Michael J. Bloomfield
48. Guion Bluford, first African-American in space.
49. Karol Bobko, first graduate of the United States Air Force Academy to become an astronaut.
50. Eric A. Boe
51. Charles Bolden
52. Roberta Bondar, first Canadian woman in space.
53. Frank Borman, commander of Apollo 8, the first spaceflight to orbit the Moon.
54. Stephen G. Bowen
55. Kenneth Bowersox
56. Charles Brady (1951-2006)
57. Vance Brand
58. Daniel Brandenstein
59. Randolph Bresnik
60. Roy Bridges. Became Director of the Kennedy Space Center in March 1997
61. Curtis Brown
62. *David M. Brown (1956-2003)
63. Mark Brown
64. James Buchli
65. Jay Buckey
66. Nikolai Budarin
67. Daniel Burbank
68. Daniel Bursch
69. Valery Bykovsky (born 1934)
70. Robert Cabana
71. Tracy Caldwell
72. Charles Camarda
73. Kenneth Cameron
74. Duane Carey
75. Scott Carpenter, a Project Mercury astronaut.
76. Gerald Carr
77. Sonny Carter, (1947-1991)
78. John Casper
79. Christopher J. Cassidy, 500th astronaut in space.
80. Robert Cenker
81. Gene Cernan, flew on Apollo 17
82. Gregory Chamitoff
83. Franklin Chang-Diaz, the only Costa Rican, first Hispanic-American in space, holder of the shared record of seven space flights.
84. *Kalpana Chawla (1961-2003), first Indian-American woman in space, died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
85. Maurizio Cheli
86. Leroy Chiao
87. Kevin Chilton
88. Jean-Loup Chrétien, first French person in space and first non-Soviet European to walk in space
89. *Laurel B. Clark (1961-2003), died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
90. Mary Cleave
91. Jean-François Clervoy
92. Michael Clifford
93. Michael Coats
94. Kenneth Cockrell
95. Catherine Coleman (born 1960)
96. Eileen Collins
97. Michael Collins (born 1930), flew on Apollo 11 crew. Was the first Italian-born person in space. (Collins was born in Rome to American parents.)
98. Pete Conrad, Apollo 12, (1930-1999), the third person to walk on the Moon and the commander of the first Skylab mission.
99. Gordon Cooper (1927-2004), the first American to fly in space for a day.
100. Richard Covey
101. Timothy Creamer
102. John Creighton
103. Robert Crippen, Space Shuttle pioneer
104. Roger Crouch
105. Frank Culbertson
106. Walter Cunningham, flew on Apollo 7.
107. Robert Curbeam
108. Nancy Currie
109. Nancy Jan Davis
110. Lawrence J. DeLucas
111. Frank De Winne
112. Vladimir N. Dezhurov
113. *Georgi Dobrovolski (1928-1971)
114. Takao Doi, first Japanese to walk in space.
115. B. Alvin Drew
116. Brian Duffy
117. Charles Duke, flew on Apollo 16.
118. Bonnie J. Dunbar
119. Pedro Duque, first Spaniard in space.
120. Samuel T. Durrance
121. James Dutton
122. Lev Dyomin (1926-1998)
123. Vladimir Dzhanibekov, first Uzbekistan-born man in space
124. Joe Edwards
125. Donn F. Eisele (1930-1987), flew on Apollo 7.
126. Anthony W. England
127. Joseph H. Engle
128. Ronald Evans (1933-1990)
129. Reinhold Ewald
130. Léopold Eyharts
131. John Fabian
132. Muhammed Faris, first Syrian in space.
133. Bertalan Farkas, first Hungarian in space.
134. Jean-Jacques Favier
135. Fèi Jùnlóng, flew on Shenzhou 6
136. Konstantin Feoktistov (1926-2009)
137. Christopher Ferguson
138. Martin J. Fettman
139. Andrew J. Feustel
140. Anatoli Filipchenko
141. Michael Fincke
142. Anna Fisher
143. William Frederick Fisher
144. Klaus-Dietrich Flade
145. Michael Foale, holds the American and British Record for time spent in space at 374 days, 11 hours, 19 minutes.
146. Kevin A. Ford
147. Michael Foreman
148. Patrick Forrester
149. Michael Fossum
150. Stephen Frick
151. Dirk Frimout, first Belgian in space.
152. Christer Fuglesang, first Swede in space.
153. Charles Fullerton
154. Reinhard Furrer (1940-1995)
155. Francis Gaffney
156. Yuri Gagarin (1934-1968), first person in space.
157. Ronald Garan
158. Dale Gardner
159. Guy Gardner
160. Jake Garn, a United States Senator and first politician in space.
161. Marc Garneau, first Canadian in space.
162. Owen Garriott
163. Richard Garriott, first second generation American in space, son of skylab astronaut, Owen Garriott.
164. Charles Gemar
165. Michael Gernhardt
166. Edward Gibson
167. Robert L. Gibson
168. Yuri Gidzenko
169. Yuri Glazkov (1939-2008)
170. John Glenn (born 1921), first American to orbit the Earth, and later, the oldest person to make a spaceflight.
171. Linda Godwin
172. Michael T. Good
173. Viktor Gorbatko
174. Richard Gordon, flew on Apollo 12.
175. Dominic Gorie
176. Ronald Grabe
177. Georgi Grechko
178. Frederick Gregory
179. William Gregory
180. Stanley Griggs (1939-1989)
181. Virgil Grissom (1926-1967), first NASA astronaut to go into space twice and the first person to go into space twice in a capsule-type spacecraft. Would have been the first person to fly three times. Died in the Apollo 1 disaster.
182. John Grunsfeld
183. Aleksei Gubarev
184. Umberto Guidoni
185. Jügderdemidiin Gürragchaa, first Mongolian in space.
186. Sidney Gutierrez
187. Chris Hadfield, first Canadian to walk in space.
188. Claudie Haigneré, first Frenchwoman in space.
189. Jean-Pierre Haigneré
190. Fred Haise, flew on Apollo 13.
191. James Halsell
192. Kenneth Ham
193. Lloyd Hammond
194. Gregory Harbaugh
195. Bernard Harris, first African-American to walk in space.
196. Terry Hart
197. Henry Hartsfield
198. Frederick Hauck
199. Steven Hawley
200. Susan Helms
201. Karl Henize (1926-1993)
202. Thomas Hennen
203. Terence Henricks
204. Miroslaw Hermaszewski, first Pole in space.
205. Jose Hernández
206. John Herrington, first Native American in space.
207. Richard Hieb
208. Joan Higginbotham
209. David Hilmers
210. Kathryn Hire
211. Charles Hobaugh
212. Jeffrey Hoffman
213. Scott Horowitz
214. Akihiko Hoshide
215. Millie Hughes-Fulford, first female Payload Specialist.
216. Douglas G. Hurley
217. *Rick D. Husband (1957-2003), died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
218. James Irwin (1930-1991), flew on Apollo 15.
219. Aleksandr Ivanchenkov
220. Georgi Ivanov, first Bulgarian in space.
221. Marsha Ivins
222. Sigmund Jähn, first German in space
223. Mae Jemison, first African-American woman in space
224. Tamara E. Jernigan
225. Brent W. Jett, Jr.
226. Jing Haipeng
227. Gregory C. Johnson
228. Gregory H. Johnson
229. Thomas D. Jones
230. Leonid Kadenyuk, first Ukrainian in space since independence.
231. Alexander Kaleri, first Russian in space since independence.
232. Janet Kavandi
233. James Kelly
234. Mark E. Kelly
235. Scott Kelly
236. Joseph Kerwin
237. Yevgeny Khrunov (1933-2000)
238. Robert S. Kimbrough
239. Leonid Kizim (1941-2010)
240. Pyotr Klimuk, first Belarusian in space.
241. *Vladimir Komarov (1927-1967), killed during a USSR space flight.
242. Yelena V. Kondakova
243. Oleg Kononenko, first Turkmenistan-born man in space
244. Timothy L. Kopra
245. Mikhail Korniyenko
246. Valery Korzun
247. Oleg Kotov
248. Vladimir Kovalyonok
249. Konstantin Kozeyev
250. Kevin Kregel
251. / Sergei Krikalev, six space flights and, as of 2008, holds record for longest total time in space: 803 days, 9 hours and 39 minutes.
252. Valeri Kubasov
253. André Kuipers
254. Aleksandr Laveykin
255. Guy Laliberté
256. Wendy Lawrence
257. Vasili Lazarev (1928-1990)
258. Aleksandr Lazutkin
259. Valentin Lebedev
260. Mark C. Lee
261. David Leestma
262. William B. Lenoir
263. Aleksei Leonov, first person to "walk in space" (to make an EVA).
264. Frederick W. Leslie
265. Anatoli Levchenko (1941-1988)
266. Byron Lichtenberg, first NASA Payload Specialist.
267. Don Lind
268. Steven Lindsey
269. Jerry Linenger
270. Richard Linnehan
271. Gregory Linteris
272. Liu Boming
273. Paul Lockhart
274. Yuri Lonchakov
275. / Michael Lopez-Alegria
276. John Lounge
277. Jack Lousma
278. Stanley G. Love
279. Jim Lovell, flew on Apollo 8, the first spaceship to orbit the Moon, and on Apollo 13.
280. G. David Low (1956-2008)
281. Edward Lu
282. Shannon Lucid, first Asian-born woman in space. As of 2006, holder of the woman's spaceflight-duration record.
283. Vladimir Lyakhov
284. Steven MacLean
285. Sandra Magnus
286. Oleg Makarov (1933-2003)
287. Yuri Malenchenko
288. Franco Malerba, first Italian in space. (Michael Collins was born in Rome, Italy in 1930, he has always been an American citizen, born of American parents.)
289. Yuri Malyshev (1941-1999)
290. Gennadi Manakov
291. Musa Manarov, first Azerbaidjan-born man in space
292. Thomas H. Marshburn
293. Michael Massimino
294. Richard Mastracchio
295. Thomas Kenneth "Ken" Mattingly II (born 1936), flew on Apollo 16, STS-4, and STS-51-C.
296. K. Megan McArthur
297. William S. McArthur
298. Jon McBride
299. Bruce McCandless II
300. *William C. McCool (1961-2003), died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
301. Michael McCulley
302. James McDivitt, flew on Apollo 9.
303. Donald McMonagle
304. *Ronald McNair (1950-1986), died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
305. Carl Meade
306. Bruce Melnick
307. Pamela Melroy
308. Leland D. Melvin
309. Mike Melvill, first commercial (launched by a private company) astronaut. Suborbital flight only.
310. Ulf Merbold
311. Ernst Messerschmid
312. Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger
313. Edgar Mitchell, flew on Apollo 14.
314. Abdul Ahad Mohmand, first Afghan in space.
315. Mamoru Mohri
316. Barbara Morgan
317. Lee Morin
318. Boris Morukov
319. Chiaki Mukai, first Japanese woman in space.
320. Richard Mullane
321. Talgat Musabayev
322. Story Musgrave
323. Steven R. Nagel
324. Bill Nelson, second politician in space.
325. George Nelson
326. Rodolfo Neri Vela, first Mexican in space.
327. Paolo A. Nespoli
328. James H. Newman
329. Claude Nicollier, first Swiss in space.
330. Niè Hǎishèng, flew on Shenzhou 6
331. Andriyan Nikolayev (1929-2004)
332. Soichi Noguchi
333. Carlos I. Noriega, first Peruvian-born person in space.
334. Lisa Nowak
335. Karen Nyberg
336. Bryan O'Connor
337. Ellen Ochoa, first Hispanic woman in space.
338. Wubbo Ockels, first Dutch citizen in space.
339. William Oefelein
340. John D. Olivas
341. Gregory Olsen, third spaceflight participant.
342. *Ellison Onizuka (1946-1986), died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
343. Yuri Onufrienko
344. Stephen Oswald
345. Robert Overmyer (1936-1996)
346. Gennady Padalka
347. William Pailes
348. Scott Parazynski
349. Ronald A. Parise (1951-2008)
350. Robert Parker
351. Nicholas Patrick
352. *Viktor Patsayev (1933-1971)
353. James Pawelczyk
354. Julie Payette
355. Gary Payton, first military astronaut.
356. Philippe Perrin, first Morocco-born man in space
357. Donald Peterson
358. Donald Pettit
359. Pham Tuân, first Vietnamese and first Asian in space.
360. John Phillips
361. William Pogue
362. Alan G. Poindexter
363. Mark Polansky
364. Alexander Poleshchuk
365. Valeri Polyakov, holds record for single longest spaceflight, 437 days.
366. Marcos Pontes, first Brazilian in space.
367. Leonid Popov
368. Pavel Popovich (1930-2009), first Ukrainian-born person in space.
369. Charles Precourt
370. Dumitru Prunariu, first Romanian in space.
371. *Ilan Ramon (1954-2003), first Israeli in space, died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster.
372. William Readdy
373. Kenneth Reightler
374. James F. Reilly
375. Garrett Reisman
376. Thomas Reiter, first German to walk in space and first ESA astronaut to stay on the ISS.
377. Vladimír Remek, first Czech and first non-Soviet European in space.
378. *Judith Resnik (1949-1986), died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
379. Paul W. Richards
380. Richard N. Richards
381. Sally Ride, first American woman in space.
382. Stephen Robinson
383. Roman Romanenko
384. Yuri Romanenko
385. Kent Rominger
386. Stuart Roosa (1933-1994), flew on Apollo 14.
387. Jerry L. Ross, flew on seven space flights.
388. Valeri Rozhdestvensky
389. Nikolay Rukavishnikov (1932-2002)
390. Mario Runco, Jr.
391. Valery Ryumin
392. Albert Sacco
393. Gennadi Sarafanov (1942-2005)
394. Robert Satcher
395. Viktor Savinykh
396. Svetlana Savitskaya, first woman to walk in space.
397. Wally Schirra (1923-2007)
398. Hans Schlegel
399. Harrison Schmitt, flew on Apollo 17.
400. Rusty Schweickart
401. *Dick Scobee (1939-1986), died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.
402. David Scott
403. Winston Scott
404. Paul Scully-Power
405. Richard Searfoss
406. Rhea Seddon
407. Ronald Sega
408. Piers Sellers
409. Aleksandr Serebrov
410. Vitali Sevastyanov
411. Yuri Shargin, first Russian military cosmonaut
412. Salizhan Sharipov [3], first Kyrgyzstan-born man in space
413. Rakesh Sharma, first Indian in space.
414. Helen Sharman, first Briton in space.
415. Vladimir Shatalov, first Kazakhstan-born man in space
416. Brewster Shaw
417. Alan Shepard (1923-1998), first American in space.
418. William Shepherd
419. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, first Malaysian in space
420. Georgi Shonin (1935-1997)
421. Loren Shriver
422. Mark Shuttleworth, second spaceflight participant and first South African in space.
423. Charles Simonyi, fifth spaceflight participant.
424. Aleksandr Skvortsov
425. Donald "Deke" Slayton (1924-1996), a Mercury astronaut.
426. Steven Smith
427. Anatoly Solovyev, first Latvia-born man in space
428. Vladimir Solovyov
429. Sherwood Spring
430. Robert Springer
431. Thomas Patten Stafford
432. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper
433. Robert Stewart
434. Susan Still
435. Nicole Stott
436. Gennady Strekalov (1940-2004)
437. Frederick Sturckow
438. Kathryn Sullivan, first American woman to walk in space.
439. Maksim Surayev
440. Steven Swanson
441. John "Jack" Swigert (1931-1982), flew on Apollo 13.
442. Arnaldo Tamayo Méndez, the first Cuban and the first person from a country in the Western Hemisphere other than the U.S. to travel to space. He was also the first Hispanophone and first person of African ancestry in space.
443. Daniel Tani
444. Joseph Tanner
445. Valentina Tereshkova, first woman in space.
446. Norman Thagard
447. Gerhard Thiele
448. Robert Thirsk
449. Andrew Thomas
450. Donald Thomas
451. Kathryn Thornton, first woman to make multiple EVAs.
452. William Thornton
453. Pierre Thuot
454. Dennis Tito, first self-funded spaceflight participant.
455. Gherman Titov (1935-2000), the second person to make a space flght and the first to stay up for a day.
456. Vladimir Titov
457. Michel Tognini
458. Valery Tokarev
459. Sergei Treschev
460. Eugene Trinh, first Vietnamese-American in space.
461. Richard Truly
462. Bjarni Tryggvason, first Iceland-born man in space
463. Vasili Tsibliyev
464. Mikhail Tyurin
465. Yury Usachev
466. Lodewijk van den Berg, first Dutch-born astronaut.
467. James "Ox" van Hoften
468. Vladimir Vasyutin (1952-2002)
469. Charles Veach (1944-1995)
470. Franz Viehböck, first Austrian in space.
471. Alexander Viktorenko
472. Terry Virts
473. Pavel Vinogradov
474. Roberto Vittori
475. Igor Volk
476. Sergey Volkov, first second generation astronaut or cosmonaut in space, son of Alexander Volkov.
477. *Vladislav Volkov (1935-1971), killed on Soyuz 11.
478. Alexander Volkov
479. Boris Volynov, first Jewish person in space.
480. James Voss
481. Janice Voss
482. Koichi Wakata
483. Rex Walheim
484. Charles Walker
485. David M. Walker, (1944-2001)
486. Joseph A. Walker (1921-1966), first person to enter space twice. Suborbital flights only.
487. Shannon Walker - Soyuz TMA-19
488. Ulrich Walter
489. Carl Walz
490. Taylor Wang, first ethnic Chinese person in space.
491. Mary Weber
492. Paul Weitz
493. James Wetherbee
494. Edward White (1930-1967), first American to "walk in space" (make an EVA). Died in the Apollo 1 disaster.
495. Douglas H. Wheelock
496. Peggy Whitson
497. Terrence Wilcutt
498. Dafydd Williams
499. Donald Williams
500. Jeffrey Williams
501. Sunita Williams
502. Barry Wilmore
503. Stephanie Wilson
504. Peter Wisoff
505. David Wolf
506. Alfred Worden
507. Naoko Yamazaki
508. Yáng Lìwěi, first Chinese national in space.
509. Boris Yegorov (1937-1994)
510. Aleksei Yeliseyev
511. Yi So-yeon, first South Korean in space.
512. John Young, flew on two Gemini, two Apollo (Apollo 10 and Apollo 16), and two Space Shuttle missions.
513. Fyodor Yurchikhin, First Greek in space, first Georgia-born man in space
514. Sergei Zalyotin
515. George D. Zamka
516. Zhai Zhigang, first Chinese to walk in space.
517. Vitaliy Zholobov
518. Vyacheslav Zudov
From: ♫ IsLΔMic♫ <coolcollectionsforyou@gmail.com>
To: coolcollectionsforyou <coolcollectionsforyou@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tue, March 22, 2011 11:08:21 PM
Subject: [CoolCollectionsForYou] First Muslim to offer Prayers in Space - Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar
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| Keeping pace with space | ||||||
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He is the first Muslim to have offered prayers in space. He is a man with a strong determination and vision to take the Ummah to a new height of glory, to space. Meet Datuk Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar — a doctor by qualification, an astronaut by training and a model by choice. Now the man is on a mission to establish an Islamic Space Agency (ISA). "Around 500 people have gone into space but only nine of them have been Muslims," said Muszaphar, a Malaysian, speaking about his ambitious project. Upset over a poor growth of scientific research and achievement in Muslim countries, Muszaphar said: "We must remember he who conquers space will conquer the world."
Muszaphar wants Muslim states to also take a keen interest in space technology. He wants more Muslims to go into space, and in pursuit of his goal, he has conceived the idea of the ISA and is in touch with four other Muslim astronauts.
Muszaphar is passionate about his project. He wants Muslim and Arab nations to unite and retain the scientific and technological upper hand. "I want to bring Muslim scientists, scholars, aerospace engineers, astronauts and others under one roof for research and development to build a technically sound and intellectually rich nation." Born on July 27, 1972, Muszaphar is an orthopedic surgeon and the first Malaysian to go into space. He earned a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India. He was pursuing his Master's in orthopedic surgery at University Kebangsaan, Malaysia, when he joined the "Angkasawan" space program. After completing initial training at Star City in Russia, Muszaphar and Faiz Khaled were selected to undergo an 18-month training program in Russia at the end of which Muszaphar was chosen as prime crew member, while Faiz Khaled served as back up. When asked what was the reason for his final selection, he said: "There is nothing exceptional about me, I'm not the fastest runner, or the fastest swimmer, or physically very strong. But I'm mentally very sharp. My strength is mind. I believe what the mind believes the body can achieve," he said. Muszaphar performed experiments on board the International Space Station (ISS) relating to the characteristics and growth of liver cancer and leukemia cells, and the crystallization of various proteins and microbes in space. The experiments relating to liver cancer, leukemia cells and microbes were conducted to benefit science and medical research, while the experiments relating to the crystallization of proteins, lipases in this case, will directly benefit Malaysian industries, he said. Muszaphar was launched to the ISS aboard Soyuz TMA-11 with the Expedition 16 crew on Oct. 10, 2007. He flew under an agreement between Malaysia and Russia, and returned to Earth on Oct. 21, 2007. Muszaphar shared his story on being the first Malaysian "Angkasawan" and his journey into space with Arab News. He touched on many of the difficulties he faced when eating, drinking, sleeping and praying in space, a topic of much debate among Muslim scholars across the globe. "For me it was a dream come true. I have been very much fascinated by space since age 10; I used to look at the sky from the window of my house. I always wanted to go there; it was my childhood dream which came true with my flight from Kazakhstan," he said. "Once there, I realized how small the Earth is and how big other planets in the galaxy are. The first time when I saw earth from the space, it was a magical feeling, my heart stopped beating, my eyes stopped blinking at the sight of beautiful Earth. And believe me, I had the same magical feeling when I performed Haj," Muszaphar said. An interesting part of his space odyssey was that he offered all five prayers a day during his 12 days in space. Since Muszaphar is a Muslim, and as his time in space coincided with the last part of Ramadan, the Islamic National Fatwa Council drew up the first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space. Muslims are required to pray five times a day. Each prayer is performed at a certain defined hour. Muszaphar said the challenge was how to know the prayer time in a shuttle or space station that orbited the Earth 16 times every 24 hours. This meant he had to pray 80 times a day, as the sun appears rising and setting every 45 minutes from the ISS. So, the solution was to adhere to the prayer times in Kazakhstan, from where the astronaut had left for space. "For my prayers I chose the local time in Baikonur from where I was launched into space," he said. Muszaphar celebrated Eid Al-Fitr aboard the ISS. He had taken some cookies that he distributed among the crew members on Oct. 13, 2007, to mark the end of Ramadan. He said the main objectives of the Angkasawan program were to inculcate an interest in science and technology among young Malaysians and to motivate them to dream the impossible. Muszaphar hopes to be the catalyst for change in the minds of young Malaysians. "It's not about name or fame. It is about my promises. I want to inspire and change the mind set." After being in outer space and serving people as a surgeon on earth, Muszaphar has now set his sights on the sky. He hopes to become a pilot by 2013 after finishing his contract with Malaysia's Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. |
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