PM Gets His Wish To Speak To Dr Sheikh Muszaphar

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 (Bernama) -- Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi finally got his wish to speak to Malaysian angkasawan Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustapha when connection was established with the International Space Station (ISS) via video-conferencing from Astro's Studio 7 at 9pm today.

"I still want to wish you Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri and also on behalf of my wife and the people of Malaysia as I couldn't do it the other day due to a transmission problem," said Abdullah who was clearly excited to see Dr Sheikh Muszaphar floating as he spoke to the Prime Minister from the ISS.

The 15-minute video conferencing saw Abdullah posing a number of questions to Dr Sheikh Muszaphar with regards to his health, conditions on space and his experiments.

"Now that you are in the space station, do you feel that the training given in Russia was adequate or you would have wished for additional training," asked Abdullah.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar, who thanked the Prime Minister and Malaysians, replied that it was his seventh day in space and that the training in Russia was a big help in making his mission a success.

The Prime Minister, who was with his wife Datin Seri Jeanne Abdullah, thanked Dr Sheikh Muszaphar for making Malaysia proud and displaying the true identity of a Malaysian in space.

"This means you will be able to undertake the responsibilities given to you to do some experiments as well and we look forward to you bringing back some of the specimens," said Abdullah.

The Prime Minister also asked Dr Sheikh Muszaphar whether he had any problems in performing his praying routines to which he replied that there was none and that the guidelines from the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim) were useful.

Abdullah was also curious to know if Dr Sheikh Muszaphar's experiments were on schedule and if he had recorded all his day-to-day activities to be published in a book for future reference to which the angkasawan said he had recorded every detail in his laptop to be shared by everybody upon his return to earth on Oct 21.

A concerned Abdullah also wanted to know if he had any health problems since his blast off till now and congratulated Dr Sheikh Muszaphar for doing a good job.

The prime minister also extended his regards to the rest of the crew at the ISS for their help rendered.

Meanwhile, Jeanne asked Dr Sheikh Muszaphar whether he was eating well and enjoying the food he had taken with him and wished him a safe homecoming.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar together with Russian astronaut Yuri Malenchenko and Commander Peggy Whitson of the United States are crew members of the Soyuz TMA-11 which blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Oct 10.

The Soyuz docked with the ISS at 10.52pm Malaysian time on Oct 12 and the crew joined Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin, Flight Engineer Oleg Kotov and Clay Anderson, three crew of the previous mission to the ISS.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar, an orthopaedic surgeon, will carry out four experiments drawn up by Malaysian scientists including a study of the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cells and microbes.

He is scheduled to return to Earth on Oct 21 with two Russian astronauts Yurchikhin and Kotov while Malenchenko and Whitson will stay on.

-- BERNAMA