1st Muslim to Fast in Space

Facts I learned from Dr. Sheikh Muszaphar himself when he visited USM:

1. He was wearing 3 watches during the space flight to the International Space station. The 1st watch was for the time at the launch site in Baikonur, the 2nd I think was for Kazakhstan or the command centre and the 3rd was for malaysian time.

2. At the space station his schedule for the beginning of fast to the breaking of fast as well as praying followed the time from where he left earth. That's why he wears the watch that show the launch site time. This is especially important for prayer because if he were to pray according to time in space he would have to pray 80 times a day.

3. Jakim provided a guideline for ibadah in space. It's the 1st of its kind

4. He's the 9th muslim to go into space but the 1st to fast in space

5. He performed his daily solat by standing and strapping his legs down but he couldn't sujud for very long because he'd start to twist and turn. The qiblat is of course earth because that's where the Kaabah is.....duh!

6. Sleeping on the space station involves getting into a sleeping bag, strapping himself in and zipping up the sleeping bag tightly. He said, there was one time he didn't strap himself in securely and he woke up on the other side of the space station.

7. He said that he heard the azan playing in his head on the day that he was to return to earth. On that day, he felt like he didn't want to leave because it was so beautiful and peaceful there. He was feeling sad and then he said he heard the azan playing in his head. After hearing this he knew in his heart that god was telling him that it was time to go home.
Rumor has it that Neil armstrong heard the azan and converted to Islam. But i know this is not true at all because i read a press statement in which Neil armstrong denied ever hearing the azan. He also said that he has not converted to Islam.

8. In the NASA website, Dr. Sheikh is listed as being a spaceflight participant. Many say the he is just a glorified space tourist. However, he explained that space tourists and spaceflight participants go through clearly different trainings. Space tourist go through 3-4 months of training only, spaceflight participants go through a year of training. Most space tourist can operate equipment or machine whereas he could operate or handle many equipment on the space station. In fact the cosmonauts gave him free range on board the space station, they would not have done that if they were not sure that he knows what he's doing.

9. All the cosmonauts and he himself brought along the food of their culture. He brought along rendang tok, satay and a lot of other thing. No, he did not bring durians or petai.

10. His younger brother who passed away was an alumni of USM. He was a HBP student.

11. He didn't say this directly, I'm just using logical thinking. I think that Dr. sheikh is not someone who is going to settle down any time soon. . Why do I say he's not going to settle down....... well he's in love with pursuing his many ambitions. He has a restaurant in KL. He's been to Afghanistan in 2002 after the war and Cambodia in 2003 for humanitarian aid under MERCY. Once he's completed his book on his journey to space and published his research and after he's done touring the country to promote science among the young ones he's planning to go to other countries to do humanitarian aid again. So he's going to be a very busy man. If he is going to settle down at all, his wife would have to be a really, really understanding and selfless woman. Because he'll be busy and she'll have to share him with the rest of Malaysia.

12. Someone asked him why he looked worried during launching? He said that conditions in the soyuz was cramped, he couldn't move or stretch his legs for 6 whole hours. So what people saw as worried was really him showing discomfort at having leg cramps. Har... har ...har

--- This I got from surfing the net, not during his visit - he has a blog, read it here http://www.angkasawan.com.my/blog/index.php