Touching the stars: 'Dreams can come true,' says Asian astronaut

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, 38, was unfazed by the bright glare of camera flashes at the event held in his honor at the Ateneo de Manila University. After all, he's used to being in the company of stars —literally. “I want to inspire the young generation to dream," he said during a one-hour talk in a small lecture room in the Ateneo on Wednesday. The dream was to be in space, something that Shukor already wanted since he was ten years old. The tall, dusky and charming Malaysian is the first from his country, and the second from Southeast Asia to travel to space. “People were telling me I wouldn’t be an astronaut," the part-time model and orthopedic surgeon said. “But if you truly believe in yourself, you will fulfill your dreams, [so long as you] work hard." On October 10, 2007, Shukor’s dream did indeed come true: he was launched into space aboard the Soyuz TMA-11 from Kazakhstan, along with an astronaut and a cosmonaut. After orbiting the earth for two days, the Soyuz docked into the International Space Station (ISS), where Shukor stayed for another nine days to perform experiments that could help save the lives of people suffering from liver cancer and leukemia. Departing from Earth, Shukor said, was the best experience of his life. “It’s not just my dream but the dream of the Malaysian people," he said. Southeast Asian Icon The Philippines is only the second Southeast Asian country that Shukor has visited. Aside from his homeland, he’s also toured Indonesia. After his hour-long talk, in which he spoke about his training in Russia and experience on the ISS, Shukor was bombarded with photo-op requests from professors, students, and the occasional gushing kolehiyala. “It’s like [the effect of boxing champion turned lawmaker Manny] Pacquiao," explained a member of the Malaysian embassy. The adoring fans and flashing lights, he explained, are also there when he’s in Malaysia. Shukor was picked out of 11,425 applicants for the Malaysian government’s Angkasawan program, which was created to send the first Malaysian to space. In exchange for the cost of training two and sending one Malaysian into space ($25 million in 2007, said Shukor), the Malaysian government bought military aircraft from Russia. Living the dream Throughout his talk, Shukor kept repeating the idea that “dreams are possible"—but only if you work hard to achieve them. “[As I child], I loved them all—Stars Wars, Star Trek and Superman," he said, laughing. “My room [was] filled with posters of them." The Angkasawan program (Angkasawan is Malay for astronaut) was opened in 2003 to Malaysians who were at least 21-years-old and had a college degree. In order to be considered, applicants also had to be —in Shukor’s words— “perfect." “[Your] eyes must be sharp, your hearing must be perfect and you can’t even have any fillings in your teeth," he said. Space travelers should also be free from surgical scars—lest they rupture while in orbit. Their lungs also need to be as strong as possible. “So if you want to go space, don’t smoke!" he said. More importantly, he noted, space travelers need to be mentally and psychologically fit before leaving for space. During his training, he visited cancer patients in hospitals and was constantly observed by psychologists and doctors. On board the ISS, Shukor filmed his “daily life" while in space—including how to bathe (no water, just wet wipes since water is hard to come by up in space), eat (space travelers get to play with their food, he said), sleep (they strap their sleeping bags to the station lest they float away), and go to the toilet (“It’s very uncomfortable [because] there’s a suction that goes in the front and the back," he said). His stint in the ISS, though, wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies. Preparing for the ISS His two-year training in Russia involved survival tests on an island where he and other trainees had no food or sleep for two days, exposure to -45 degree Celsius conditions in Siberia, and a three-day visit to the Black Sea. Indoor training was just as intense: daily spins around a “spinning chair" for 25 minutes and sessions in a centrifuge where they were exposed to 9 g-forces. “[It’s] like [having] a baby elephant sitting on your chest," he explained. Just so you get an idea of the pressure 9 g-forces put on the body, a roller coaster ride puts on a mere 1.5 g-forces, he added. The g-forces forced trainees to strain every three seconds. After a go in the centrifuge, they would end up with bleeding spots all over their bodies. The centrifuge training came in handy when Shukor re-entered earth. The Soyuz TMA-10 landed 450 kilometers away from its intended landing site in Kazakhstan, plunging into a “ballistic" re-entry, the second of its kind since the first Soyuz TMA. His 11-day visit to space also posed an interesting problem—how would Shukor, a Muslim, practice his faith? The Islamic National Fatwa Council offered a solution: he left earth with guidelines for Muslims in space—instead of facing Mecca, Shukor faced the earth. He also scheduled his prayers according to the time in Kazakhstan. Otherwise, he would have had to pray more than five times a day since on the ISS, the sun rises and sets every 45 minutes. His mission also coincided with Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Before leaving earth, Shukor brought along with him satay and cookies to share with the people on board the ISS. Back on earth “The first time I looked at Earth, I got goose bumps looking at how beautiful and magical the earth is. You can see the mountains, the continents and even the pollution—but not man-made things," he said. Since going to space, Shukor’s life hasn’t been the same. “Since I came back, I feel like people move at a slow motion and I live at a very fast speed," he said. He explained that space is very disorienting, even for the plants and fish they brought along. “They were swimming around and they didn’t know where to go," he added, laughing. Kidding aside, Shukor’s trip to space has made him look at the world from a more global perspective. He wants to come back to the country by the end of 2011 to create awareness on our coral reefs. According to marine scientists, 2010 saw the worst occurrence of coral bleaching ever in the Philippines. Corals also made the headlines early June after an illegal shipment of P35 million worth of black corals and other marine species were intercepted by the Bureau of Customs. He urged other Southeast Asian countries, including the Philippines, to send their own citizens to space. “Why not a Filipina?" he said. “She can inspire all the women [in the Philippines]." “It’s a great thing [to send someone to space] because [he or she] will serve as an inspiration like how Neil Armstrong inspired the Americans and Yuri Gagarin inspired the Russians," he said. He also plans to visit different countries in Southeast Asia. “I do not belong to Malaysia alone, but this one group of Southeast Asian countries," he explained. — TJD, GMA News