A biography

Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor

Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor was born on 27 July 1972 in Assunta Hospital, Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur. He was the third child of five sibling. He was married with Datin Dr. Halina Mohd. Yunos on 10 October 2010 (10/10/10). Now he has two daughter, Sophea Isabella and Sophea Natasha. In 1979, he started his primary school at ST Paul' Seremban, Negeri Sembilan then continue his study at MRSM Muar, Johor for secondary school. During his school years, Sheikh Muszaphar actively participated in many core and extra-curricular activities in both oratory subjects and sports. His many achievements include that of being a regular participant as debater on his school team, attaining the status of National Swimmer in 1982, emerging as the top prize winner of the State Story-telling Championship in 1984, and victor of the Muar Tennis Championship in 1987. With his successful achievement, he had a scholarship to study at Kasturba Medical College in Manipal, India and graduate on 1997 with A-Levels and Bachelor's degree(MBBS) in Medicine and Surgery. Sheikh Muszaphar is an orthopaedic surgeon at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia. In 1998, Sheikh Muszaphar worked at Hospital Seremban, followed by a move to Kuala Lumpur General Hospital in 1999, and was on staff at Hospital Selayang from 2000 through 2001. In addition, he is also a speaker and a model in many commercials such as Ikea, HSBC, Fair & Lovely, Febreeze, Indocafe and Dettol. He is also the first Malaysian astronaut into space after it was announced by Dato 'Seri Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi on 25 September 2007 (Tuesday) at 12.00 noon. He had flown into space on 10 October 2007 by the Soyuz TMA-11 was launched by the International Space Station (ISS). He joined the program under an agreement with Russia through the astronaut program, and has returned to Earth with the Expedition 15 members, Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov after nine days aboard the station. The 11-day mission was successfully held on 10 October 2007 at 9.21pm Malaysian time and safely returned to Earth on October 21, 2007 at 6:44 pm Singapore time. Since Sheikh Muszaphar is a Muslim, and as his time in space coincided with the last part of Ramadan, the Islamic National Fatwa Council drew up the first comprehensive guidebook for Muslims in space. The 18-page guidebook is titled "Guidelines for Performing Islamic Rites (Ibadah) at the International Space Station", and details issues such as how to pray in a low-gravity environment, how to locate Mecca from the ISS, how to determine prayer times, and issues surrounding fasting. The orbit of the ISS results in one day/night cycle every 90 minutes, so the issues of fasting during Ramadan are also addressed. The guidebook will be translated into Russian, Arabic, and English. Anan C. Mohd, from Malaysia's Department of Islamic Development said that fasting while travelling is optional, so Sheikh Muszaphar could choose what he would like to do, but if he did decide to fast in space, the times would be centred around local time in Baikonur, where the launch takes place. Sheikh Muszaphar celebrated "Hari Raya Aidilfitri" aboard the station, and packed some satay and cookies to hand out to the rest of the crew on 13 October 2007 to mark the end of Ramadan. He was the first Muslim who underwent fasting and Eid in space.