by Playfuls Staff |
29th September 2006
Two Malaysians can start training in Russia next month for a 2007 flight to the International Space Station (ISS), space officials said Friday in Moscow.
Hours after female [more] space tourist Anousheh Ansari returned from a short visit to the ISS, representatives of the countries were due to sign a contract for the enrolment of Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor and Faiz Khaleed in the Russian cosmonaut training programme.
Both men were selected from more than 11,000 applicants to become Malaysia's first astronaut.
Only one of them, however, will go into space in autumn 2007 as part of a 10-day scientific mission to the station.
An agreement to put a Malaysian in space was reached during Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to Kuala Lumpur in 2003.
The project is part of broader military and technical cooperation between the countries worth some 1.5 billion US dollars.
The Malaysian spacefarer will formally represent his country, unlike the Iranian-born US businesswoman Ansari, who reportedly paid 21 million US dollars for her private 10-day visit to the station.
She returned safely to earth early Friday on board a Soyuz capsule, together with a Russian cosmonaut and an American astronaut.
© 2006 DPA
