Starstruck with Angkasawan

DESPITE having microphones at the audience area, many female students preferred to share Angkasawan Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor’s microphone on stage.

Some were clearly nervous and starstruck with the country’s first astronaut when they posed their questions at the Q&A session after his talk attended by schools from all over the state at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) yesterday.

One after another, they asked him about his life in space. When a girl asked him why an astronaut must not have surgical scars or teeth filling, he answered that this was because surgical stitches may open up and teeth filling may fall off in space where there was zero gravity.

In his talk earlier, he said he had wanted to go to space since the age of 10 and his dream became a reality 25 years later.

“This is proof that dreams do come true if you just believe in yourself and work towards it. I was short listed from more than 11,000 hopefuls,” he said, adding that his next aim was to become a pilot by 2013.

He said for many years, he had felt a void in his soul, which he tried to fill by doing international charity work.
“I finally found my soul in space. I didn’t want to come back,” he said.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar also showed a slideshow followed by a video, which he took on board Russia’s Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft.

The video included clips of him getting into his sleeping bag, performing his prayers, cleaning his teeth, shampooing his hair and spinning the gasing which only stopped moving after two days.

“It’s not only about physical strength, we need to be strong mentally as well,” he added.

He said when he was preparing for the trip to the International Space Station on Oct 10, last year, he got rid of his fear of heights by doing regular bungee jumping.

During the selection process, the candidates had to stay in Pulau Lumut for three days without food and sleep to test their endurance, he said.

Present were USM vice chancellor Tan Sri Dzulkifli Abdul Razak and Penang Port Sdn Bhd chief executive officer Datuk Ahmad Ibni Hajar.