Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Al Masrie bin Sheikh Mustapha (born 27 July 1972) is a Malaysian

doctor Doctor, Doctors, The Doctor or The Doctors may refer to: Titles and occupations * Physician, a medical practitioner * Doctor (title), an academic title for the holder of a doctoral-level degree ** Doctorate ** List of doctoral degrees awarded b ...

. He launched to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

aboard

Soyuz TMA-11 Soyuz TMA-11 was a human spaceflight mission using a Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to transport personnel to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The mission began at 13:22 UTC on October 10, 2007, when the spacecraft was launched from the B ...

with the

Expedition 16 Expedition 16 was the 16th List of International Space Station Expeditions, expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). The first two crew members, Yuri Malenchenko and Peggy Whitson, launched on 10 October 2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-11, an ...

crew on 10 October 2007. Sheikh Muszaphar flew under an agreement with Russia through the

Angkasawan program The ''Angkasawan program'' was an initiative by the Malaysian government to send a Malaysian to the International Space Station on board Soyuz TMA-11. The program was named after the Malay word for astronaut, ''Angkasawan''. It resulted in Sh ...

, and returned to Earth on 21 October 2007, aboard

Soyuz TMA-10 Soyuz TMA-10 was a human spaceflight mission using a Soyuz-TMA spacecraft to transport personnel to and from the International Space Station (ISS). The mission began at 17:31:09 UTC on April 7, 2007 when the spacecraft was launched from the Baik ...

with the

Expedition 15 Expedition 15 was the 15th expedition to the International Space Station (ISS). Four crew members participated in the expedition, although for most of the expedition's duration only three were on the station at any one time. During Expedition 15 ...

crew members,

Fyodor Yurchikhin Fyodor Nikolayevich Yurchikhin () is a Russian cosmonaut of Pontic Greeks, Pontic Greek descent, engineer and Energia (corporation), RSC Energia test-pilot who has flown on five spaceflights. His first spaceflight was a 10-day Space Shuttle mi ...

and

Oleg Kotov Oleg Valeriyevich Kotov () was born on 27 October 1965 in Simferopol, Crimean oblast in the Ukrainian SSR. After a career as a physician assigned to the Soviet space program, he joined the Russian cosmonaut corps. He has flown three long duratio ...

Career

Sheikh Muszaphar was born in

Kuala Lumpur Kuala Lumpur (KL), officially the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, is the capital city and a Federal Territories of Malaysia, federal territory of Malaysia. It is the largest city in the country, covering an area of with a census population ...

, the son of Sheikh Mustapha. He is of Malay,

Minangkabau Minangkabau may refer to: * Minangkabau culture, culture of the Minangkabau people * Minangkabau Culture Documentation and Information Center * Minangkabau Express, an airport rail link service serving Minangkabau International Airport (''see bel ...

and

Arab Arabs (, , ; , , ) are an ethnic group mainly inhabiting the Arab world in West Asia and North Africa. A significant Arab diaspora is present in various parts of the world. Arabs have been in the Fertile Crescent for thousands of years ...

descent. He attended high school at

Maktab Rendah Sains MARA MARA Junior Science Colleges (MJSC) (), is a network of boarding schools founded by the People's Trust Council (PTC) (), a Malaysian governmental organization. These schools offer educational resources for students across various regions in ...

in Muar. He then earned a

Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (; MBBS, also abbreviated as BM BS, MB ChB, MB BCh, or MB BChir) is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradi ...

degree from

Kasturba Medical College Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and Kasturba Medical College, Mangaluru, together known as KMC, are two private medical colleges in the state of Karnataka, India, established in 1953 and 1955. The colleges are constituent units of Manipal A ...

, an affiliated college of Manipal University, in

Manipal 300px, The house of T. M. A. Pai located in Manipal; it has since been converted to a museum. Manipal is a suburb and university town within Udupi, in coastal Karnataka, India. Manipal is located five kilometres away from the centre of Udupi C ...

, India. Sheikh Muszaphar previously worked as an orthopaedic medical officer (MO) but never completed his specialisation. at the

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia The National University of Malaysia (, abbreviated as UKM) is a public research university located in Bandar Baru Bangi, Hulu Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia. Its teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC), ...

. In 1998, Sheikh Muszaphar worked at Hospital Seremban, followed by a move to Kuala Lumpur General Hospital in 1999, and was on staff at Hospital Selayang from 2000 through 2001. Sheikh Muszaphar is also a part-time model.

Angkasawan program

Sheikh Muszaphar and three other finalists were selected at the beginning of 2006 for the Malaysian Angkasawan spaceflight program. The program arose after Russia agreed to transport one Malaysian to the ISS as part of a multi-billion purchase of 18 Russian

Sukhoi Su-30 The Sukhoi Su-30 (; NATO reporting name: Flanker-C/G/H) is a twin-engine, two-seat supermaneuverable fighter aircraft developed in the Soviet Union in the 1980s by Russia's Sukhoi Aviation Corporation. It is a multirole fighter for all-weath ...

MKM fighter jets by Malaysia. After completing initial training at Star City in Russia, Sheikh Muszaphar and

Faiz Khaleed Faiz bin Khaleed (born September 15, 1980 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) is a Malaysian military dentist with the Malaysian Armed Forces. In September 2006, he was selected as one of two final candidates to undergo astronaut training in Star City ...

were selected to undergo an 18-month training program in Russia, at the end of which Sheikh Muszaphar was chosen as the prime crew member, while Faiz Khaleed served as back-up. Following the final medical tests and training examinations, on 17 September, it was announced that Sheikh Muszaphar would be flying on the Soyuz TMA-11 mission. During a

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...

news conference with the

crew on 23 July 2007, and news conferences following his selection, Sheikh Muszaphar said he hoped to be able to take various live cell cultures to study during his flight.

Terminology

Flying as a guest of the Russian government, Sheikh Muszaphar's role aboard Soyuz and the ISS is referred to as a

spaceflight participant Spaceflight participant () is the term used by NASA, Roscosmos, and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) for people who travel into space, but are not professional astronauts. While the term gained new prominence with the rise of space touris ...

in English-language

Russian Federal Space Agency The State Corporation for Space Activities "Roscosmos", commonly known simply as Roscosmos (), is a state corporation of the Russian Federation responsible for space flights, cosmonautics programs, and aerospace research. Originating from ...

and

documents and press briefings. Speaking to Malaysian media outlets, Alexander Karchava, the Russian ambassador to Malaysia, stated that Sheikh Muszaphar is a "fully-fledged

cosmonaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...

". In an interview with the Malaysian Star newspaper, Robert Gibson, a retired NASA astronaut, shared his opinion that Sheikh Muszaphar is fully qualified as an astronaut, and as such, he should be called one. Gibson also said he regarded Sheikh Muszaphar as a peer.

Spaceflight

carrying

Yuri Malenchenko Yuri Ivanovich Malenchenko (; born December 22, 1961) is a retired Russian cosmonaut. Malenchenko became the first person to marry in space, on 10 August 2003, when he married Ekaterina Dmitrieva, who was in Texas, while he was over New Zealan ...

Peggy Whitson Peggy Annette Whitson (born February 9, 1960) is an American biochemistry researcher, and astronaut working for Axiom Space. She retired from NASA in 2018, after serving as Chief Astronaut. Over all her missions, Whitson accumulated a total of ...

and Sheikh Muszaphar successfully launched at 13:22

UTC Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communica ...

, Wednesday, 10 October 2007. After 10 days in space, Sheikh Muszaphar boarded

for his return. TMA-10 undocked from the ISS at 07:14 UTC on 21 October, and deorbit occurred at 09:47. During

atmospheric re-entry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entr ...

, the spacecraft transitioned to a

ballistic reentry Atmospheric entry (sometimes listed as Vimpact or Ventry) is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. Atmospheric entry may be ''uncontrolled entr ...

, resulting in it landing west of

Arkalyk Arkalyk or Arqalyq (, ', ; ) is a city in Kostanay Region, northern Kazakhstan. Earlier, it was the centre of Torgay Region, which was abolished in 1997. Established in 1956, it acquired the status of the city in 1965. The distance from the town ...

, approximately northwest of the intended Kazakhstan landing site. The trajectory was reported by the crew as soon as they came out of the

communications blackout In telecommunications, communications blackouts are * a cessation of communications or communications capability, caused by a lack of power to a communications facility or to communications equipment. * a total lack of radio communications cap ...

caused by plasma surrounding the spacecraft. A ballistic trajectory is a backup re-entry mode that takes over if something fails during normal re-entry. A Commission of Inquiry determined that the ballistic re-entry was caused by damage to a cable in the spacecraft's control panel, which connected the control panel with the Soyuz descent equipment. Landing occurred at 10:36 GMT, the duration of his flight is 10d 20h 14m.

Space experiments

Sheikh Muszaphar performed experiments on board the International Space Station relating to the characteristics and growth of liver cancer and

leukaemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

cells, the crystallisation of various proteins and microbes in space.

Spaceflight and religion

Since Sheikh Muszaphar is a

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

, and as his time in space coincided with the last part of

Ramadan Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. It is observed by Muslims worldwide as a month of fasting (''Fasting in Islam, sawm''), communal prayer (salah), reflection, and community. It is also the month in which the Quran is believed ...

, the Islamic

National Fatwa Council Islam in Malaysia is represented by the Shafi‘i school of Sunni jurisprudence.

drew up the first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space. The 18-page guidebook is titled ''"Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites (

Ibadah ''Ibadah'' (, ''‘ibādah'', also spelled ''ibada'') is an Arabic word meaning service or servitude. In Islam, ''ibadah'' is usually translated as “worship”, and ''ibadat''—the plural of ''ibadah''—refers to Islamic jurisprudence ( ...

) at the International Space Station"'', and details issues such as how to

pray File:Prayers-collage.png, 300px, alt=Collage of various religionists praying – Clickable Image, Collage of various religionists praying ''(Clickable image – use cursor to identify.)'' rect 0 0 1000 1000 Shinto festivalgoer praying in front ...

in a low-gravity environment, how to locate Mecca from the ISS, how to determine prayer times, and issues surrounding fasting. The orbit of the ISS results in one day/night cycle every 90 minutes, so the issues of

fasting during Ramadan During the entire month of Ramadan, Muslims are obligated to fast (, ''sawm;'' Persian language, Persian: روزہ, ''rozeh''), every day from dawn to sunset. Fasting requires the abstinence from sex, food, drinking, and smoking. Fasting the ...

are also addressed. Sheikh Muszaphar celebrated

Eid ul-Fitr Eid al-Fitr () is the first of the two main festivals in Islam, the other being Eid al-Adha. It falls on the first day of Shawwal, the tenth month of the Islamic calendar. Eid al-Fitr is celebrated by Muslims worldwide because it marks the ...

aboard the station, and packed some

satay Satay ( , in the US also ), or sate in Indonesia, is a Javanese cuisine, Javanese dish of seasoned, skewered and grilled meat, served with a sauce. Satay originated in Java, but has spread throughout Indonesia, into Southeast Asia, Europe, ...

and cookies to hand out to the rest of the crew on 13 October 2007 to mark the end of Ramadan.

Legacy

In honour of Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor being the first Malaysian sent into space, the

2008 ASEAN University Games The 2008 ASEAN University Games, () officially known as the 14th ASEAN University Games, () was a Southeast Asian university multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 11 to 21 December 2008. This was the third time Malaysia hosted the ...

organising committee had chosen an astronaut as the games mascot, which is named A1 Angkasawan.

Honours

Honours of Malaysia

* : **

Knight Companion of the

Order of Loyalty to Negeri Sembilan Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

(DSNS) - Dato' (2008)

References

External links

Spacefacts biography of Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor

Malaysia's first astronaut to do what no one in space has done before

Interview with Sheikh Muszaphar from the ISS

Nils Fischer "Islamic religious practice in outer space." ISIM review (2008) 22: 39.
{{Authority control Living people 1972 births People from Kuala Lumpur Malaysian people of Arab descent Malaysian people of Malay descent Minangkabau people Malaysian people of Minangkabau descent Malaysian Muslims Malaysian surgeons Orthopedic surgeons Malaysian astronauts Manipal Academy of Higher Education alumni MARA Junior Science College alumni Mars One Physician astronauts Space medicine doctors Spaceflight participants