Malaysia Celebrates Space Man

clipped from www.islamonline.net Muszaphar became the ninth Muslim to cross the 100-km boundary above Earth, considered to be the defining line for outer space. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a 35-year-old orthopaedic surgeon and university lecturer, returned to Earth on Sunday, October 21, after 11 days in space. He and two Russian cosmonauts touched down safely at 1043 GMT in Kazakhstan. His mother, Datin Zuraida Sheikh Ahmad, was crying with relief as she sat next to her husband, Datuk Sheikh Mustapha Sheikh Abdul Shukor. Muszaphar trained for over a year at Moscow's Star City before he left for the mission on October 10 with American Peggy Whitson, the new commander on the ISS, and a Russian Yuri Malenchenko. The practicing Muslim celebrated the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan at the space station and carried out experiments for Malaysia's Genome Institute. Muszaphar was chosen from 11,000 candidates and underwent more than a year of training at Moscow's Star City.