Malaysian Astronout?

Question

I think most people can recall about a Malaysian Astronout hitching a ride on the Soyuz to ISS. The issue is that there's some comment going around the he's just a Space Traveller. Do you agree ?

Answer 1

No, the one on the last mission is a full fledged astronaut and he is working on helping with the construction on the ISS. He is the first real astronaut from his nation and they are quite proud of him. Yes, the Russians were paid a large sum to take him into space, but normal space tourist training is less than 6 months and he spent a year.

Is it a political move to put him on the ISS, of course it is, but then so is the involvement of ESA and the Russians; a political move that pays off with resupply missions from the Russians and new habitat modules from the Europeans. It is no secret that the Russians are strapped for cash and in this mission the Russians get money and Malaysia gets serious attention as a world wide player since they have an actual space program. The official space tourists were never that interested in doing science, but in only sight seeing. By assigning the Malaysian astronaut real science to perform he can be called an official astronaut.

When the Russians bring up a space tourist NASA has to avoid any serious work being done at the time because of the danger of them possibly getting in the way. In fact the Russians spend most of their mission time just watching them to make sure they don't do something wrong.

Currently NASA, Russia, and ESA are all involved in some major construction work and they won't do that kind of work with an amateur within 100 kilometers (the Internationally Recognized Edge of Space).

According to: http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hDgQUf5Cas2bUteAYaKpy8TYS7AQ
"Malaysians were slighted by a reference on the NASA website which listed Muszaphar as a "space flight participant" -- a term reserved for space tourists.

But NASA astronaut Robert Gibson helped restore national pride by insisting he was a fully fledged astronaut, or "angkasawan" in the Malay language.

"He's trained for a year with the Russians. The people in the past who have gone for a ride have not gone for a year but six weeks or seven weeks," Gibson said at the launch.

"Sheikh Muszaphar is eminently qualified to be an astronaut, cosmonaut and researcher aboard Soyuz and aboard the ISS.""

According to CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/10/08/russia.space.ap/
"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 $25 million agreement for a Malaysian astronaut to fly to space was negotiated in 2003 along with a $900 million deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian fighter jets."

According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_tourism
The space tourists are:
"All five space tourists flew to and from the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft through the space tourism company, Space Adventures:

- Dennis Tito (American): April 28 - May 6, 2001
- Mark Shuttleworth (South African / British): April 25 - May 5, 2002
- Gregory Olsen (American): October 1 - October 11, 2005
- Anousheh Ansari (Iranian / American): September 18 - September 29, 2006
- Charles Simonyi (Hungarian / American): April 7 - April 21, 2007.

Future Space Tourists
The following people have been named as possible future commercial passengers on Soyuz spacecraft to the ISS:

- Richard Garriott (United States). Expected to fly on Soyuz TMA-13 in 2008. Vladimir Gruzdev (Russia). Expected to fly in 2009. Gruzdev is a United Russia pro-presidential party member. The United Russia party may pay the estimated $25 million for the flight from the party funds. Gruzdev has had a medical examination and been given approval to begin the cosmonaut training program. Gruzdev previously participated in the Arktika 2007 mission, which placed a Russian flag on the seabed near the North Pole. "

Answer 2

I was in Malaysia when they were choosing which person to send. In my opinion the best candidate was a woman Indian Malaysian if I remember correctly and she was the obvious choice from the view of intelligence and ability etc etc etc. But oh no, it had to be a Malay and a man of course otherwise it would be haram and "sensitive".

So what does he do in space? making teh tarik in a zero gravity to see how it tastes.Some astronaut. He was an army guy I think, and yes of course he was a Space Traveller because the Russians provided the trip as part of the deal to buy Mig fighter planes from them. Malaysia did not pay for the trip in cash.

As for all this stuff about him actually doing any thing useful (other than making pulled tea in space) is baloney - go check out the facts before you make comments like that on this subject.

Answer 3

Yes definitely