Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor

If u ask who is the person that I respect and adore to, without the least hesitation, I will say Dr.Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, the astronaut of Malaysia. He was the first Malaysian to go into space. He was launched to the International Space Station aboard Soyuz TMA-11 with the Expedition 16 crew on October 10 ,2007. Sheikh Muszaphar flew under an agreement with Russia through the Angkasawan program, and returned to Earth on October 21,2007, aboard Soyuz TMA-10 with the Expedition 15 crew members.

Dr sheikh Muszaphar was born in KL and attended high school at Maktab Rendah Sains MARA in Muar. He then earned a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, India. He was also pursuing his masters of Surgery in Orthopaedic Surgery at UKM when he joined the ‘Angkasawan’ programme. In 1998, Dr Sheikh Muzaphar worked at Hospital Seremban, followed by move to Kuala Lumpur General Hospital in 1999, and was on staff at Hospital Selayang from 2000 through 2001.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar performed experiments on board the International Space Station relating to the characteristics and growth of liver cancer and leukemia cells, the crystallisation of various proteins and microbes in space.The experiments relating to liver cancer, leukemia cells and microbes will benefit general science and medical research while the experiments relating to the crystallisation of proteins, lipases in this case, will directly benefit local industries.

I have an opportunity to meet him during my orientation week in UKM. Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor was came to give us a speech. He expose his experience and some information in the space through the videos. There are many funny incident during his spacelight. For example, he need to “grab” his food when he having meals because the food were wave in the space due to the inexistence of gravitation. He gave us a lot of motivation through his speech and he hope that we can contribute to our country in the future.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar’s speech had gave me enlightenment that we should make great efforts to pursue our dreams. There is nothing are impossible except you do not want to do it!