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Malaysia's 1st astronaut, American and Russian prepare for blastoff
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 08 - 10 - 2007


A crew that includes
Malaysia's first astronaut and an American who will become
the first woman to command the international space station
prepared Monday for blastoff later this week.
The Soyuz-FG rocket is scheduled to blast off from the
Central Asian steppe on Wednesday night to take Malaysia's
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Peggy Whitson of Beaconsfield,
Iowa, and Russian Yuri Malenchenko into orbit.
During his 12-day space trip, Shukor is to study of the
effects of microgravity and space radiation on cells and
microbes, as well as experiments with proteins for a
potential HIV vaccine.
The rocket _ adorned with a Malaysian flag and coat of
arms and carrying a Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft _ was moved
Monday to the launch pad from its assembly site at the
Baikonur cosmodrome, which Russia rents from Kazakhstan.
«It's too exciting to be cold,» said Shankini
Dovaisingam, a Malaysian aerospace engineer observing the
final preparations. «It's amazing to see the Malaysian
flag on a Soyuz spaceship.»
Shukor, 35, will bring a «symbolic» load of Malaysian
food to the space station, said Zulkeffeli Mat Jusoh, a
program director for the Malaysian space program.
The US$25 million (¤17.7 million) agreement for a
Malaysian astronaut to fly to space was negotiated in 2003
along with a US$900 million (¤637 million) deal for
Malaysia to buy 18 Russian fighter jets.
Shukor is to return to Earth on Oct. 21 with two Russian
members of the current space station crew, the Associated Press reported.
Whitson and Malenchenko will stay on as the station's new
crew, and will be joined in October by U.S. astronaut
Daniel Tani, who is arriving with the shuttle Discovery.
Tani will replace fellow American Clayton Anderson, who has
been at the station since June.


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