MALAYSIAN AND ANGKASAWAN

DR.SMS DAN RAKYAT MALAYSIA
Disebalik kejayaan Dr.Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustapha, masih ada segelintir atau sebahagian rakyat malaysia tertanya-tanya apakah kebaikan menghantar angkasawan?
Maka pelbagai telahan dan dakwaan yang dikeluarkan,
juga tidak kurang yang memuji dan berbangga.

Saya tertarik untuk 'mengapungkan' idea yang terhasil dengan pandangan peribadi dan pandangan rakan-rakan yang pernah kami bincangkan bersama.

Pertamanya saya tidak mahu menyebelahi mana-mana pihak samada yang bersetuju dengan program angkasawan atau yang tidak bersetuju.

Pada saya program ini dapat menjadi titik-tolak dalam kemajuan sains dan teknologi negara.Tetapi terfikir sejenak apakah Pak Lah sebenarnya terpaksa memenuhi perjanjian program pertukaran pembelian pesawat Sukhoi yang dimulakan oleh Dr.Mahatir?
Dalam kerancakan mengubati industri pertanian negara dengan pelbagai peruntukan dan pembukaan pelbagai Koridor yang melebihkan perkembangan pertanian, mengapa kerajaan membelanjakan berjuta-juta wang yang dikatakan sebagai wang rakyat hanya untuk menghantar seorang angkasawan?
Seorang rakan yang terharu dengan penerokaan angkasa ini menyatakan bahawa Pak Lah tidak melupakan pembangunan industri lain malah Pak Lah juga berbangga.
Berbeza dengan seorang lagi sahabat yang mengatakan bahawa peruntukan berjuta-juta RM sepatutnya lebih baik disalur untuk mereka-mereka yang masih memerlukan.Lebih-lebih lagi dalam suasana Ramadhan dan Aidilfitri.
Seorang lagi mencelah dengan mengatakan program ini masih wajar kerana Dr.SMS tidak hanya melancong tetapi melakukan pelbagai pengkajian yang ditugaskan.tiba-tiba celah seorang lagi dengan bertanya "apa yang boleh dikaji dalam masa 10 hari disana?"
Lebih memilukan kita hanya mengkaji sesuatu yang
telah dikaji dan diuji 20 tahun yang lalu.
Terbaru kita dikejutkan dengan pemergian adik Dr.SMS, Sheikh Mustafa Shukor Al Masrie, 32, yang cedera parah dikepalanya.
Ayahda Dr.SMS menyatakan,
"Saya kehilangan seorang anak setelah kejayaan seorang lagi anak."
Lalu pemergian adik Dr.SMS turut didebatkan.Saya sertakan disini diantara dialog yang singgah ditelinga ketika sedang menjamu selera disalah-sebuah kedai makan.






A) "Adik angkasawan meninggal tadi....
apalah dosa yang tak kena dengan keluarga diorang tu."

B)"Itulah akibat meratah duit rakyat...dah tau pun buat-buat tak tau.Nah, sekarang ALLAH tarik salah-seorang dari keluarga diaorang tu."

C)"Itukan ajal dia....apa kena-mengena dengan kos program ni?"

B)"Memang ajal...tapi kenapa jadi masa ni?"

A)"Seorang punya pasal, bonus kita pun sangkut.
kalau xda program ni, tentu ada bonus."

Dan mereka terus berdebat sesama sendiri dengan pelbagai idea sempit.
Bukankah 'ajal itu bila sampai masanya tidak dapat dilebih atau
dikurangkan walau sesaat pun.'

Allahyarham Sheikh Mustafa Shukor Al Masrie(Left).
Sesungguhnya setiap perlaksanaan yang baik pasti tidak mengundang sebarang masalah melainkan hanya dugaan yang sedikit.

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PARENTS RUSH BACK TO VISIT ASTRONAUT'S HOSPITALISED BROTHER

PETALING JAYA, Oct 25 (Bernama) -- The parents of Malaysian astronaut Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustapha Shukor arrived at the KL International Airport at 6.30pm today and immediately after that his father headed to the Universiti Malaya Medical Centre (PPUM) here to be with their fourth son, who has been in coma since Sunday after accidentaly knocking into a pillar.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar's mother, Datin Zuraida Sheikh Ahmad, however, was taken back to her residence as she was not feeling well.
At the hospital, Sheikh Mustapha, was informed that Sheikh Mustafa Shukor Al Masrie's condition was due to a blood clot in his brain.

"What can I do. It has happened. One son is safe but the other's fate is still unknown. No matter how many operations have to be done, it is all in God's hands and I will accept whatever the outcome," he said when met by reporters at PPUM.

Sheikh Mustafa, 32, a building plan engineer, fell unconscious after accidentally knocking into a pillar outside a restaurant in Jalan Klang Lama here on Sunday, the same day his brother returned to Earth from the International Space Station after a 11-day space sojourn.

Sheikh Mustapha said that his son was not suffering from any illness that could have caused him to go into a coma.

"He is a healthy man and has no sickness. I don't know how this can happen to him," he said and urged Malaysians to pray for his son's recovery.

Asked on Sheikh Muszaphar's reaction after being informed of his younger brother's condition, Sheikh Mustapha said that he accepted the news calmly.

Sheikh Mustafa is the fourth of five siblings and is married with two children.
Sheikh Mustafa's wife Hayati Redha, 29, was also present with their children, Sheikh Aiman Shukor, three, and Siti Balqish, 18 months, but declined to speak to reporters.

--BERNAMA--


MALAYSIA'S ANGKASAWAN ASPIRES TO RETURN TO ISS AS COMMANDER

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 (Bernama) -- Malaysia's first angkasawan Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor Sheikh Mustapha aspires to return to the International Space Station (ISS) as a mission commander in future.

Still missing life on the ISS, he also hopes to be there longer.

"I have been telling myself that I want to return to the ISS for six months and hoping that it will be as its commander. Godwilling, I will prove that I can do it," he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama's Radio 24 today.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar blasted off into space with a Russian cosmonaut and an American astronaut from Baikonur, Kazakhstan, for the ISS on Oct 10 and returned to Earth on Sunday.

He said that his success in completing the space mission proved he was serious in wanting to fulfill his responsibilities as a Malaysian. He said that he now felt free after having successfully fulfiled the huge responsibilities entrusted on him.

"I realised it was a huge responsibility for me and I am very grateful for having performed it well," he said in the interview from the post-space mission quarantine centre in Star City, Moscow.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar will be at the quarantine centre for between 10 days and two weeks for health monitoring before he can be allowed to come home.

He, however, is very grateful that throughout the space mission, he did not have any health problems and attributed his healthy condition to the Malaysians who prayed for him.

On the challenges facing him during the mission, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar said the biggest challenge was to carry out the experiments which had been entrusted on him.

"I realised the experiments like the one of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia was crucial because the scientists had worked very hard for two years on it ... and I did the best possible," he added.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar also said that he took the space mission seriously and not for fun.

"It was not for fun or merely to travel to space. To me, it was crucial to show the whole world that we, Malaysians, are capable of doing things like this," he said.

He said that he also felt elated and proud to be given the trust by the European Space Agency (ESA) to repair its equipment at the ISS.

"It was indeed a great honour that the ESA placed its trust in a Malaysian angkasawan to do the job," said the orthopaedic surgeon. In the interview, which lasted for almost an hour, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar was also asked on NASA's action in not recognising him as an angkasawan but only as a space flight participant.

"To me, regardless whether NASA called me a space flight participant or by any other name, what is important is that I'm recognised as an angkasawan by all Malaysians.

"Likewise the Russians, they recognised me as a Cosmonaut Researcher. This is important because I did the training with them and only they know what we (he and Kapt Dr Faiz Khaleed (Malaysia's back up angkasawan)) went through and how serious we were to accomplish the mission," he said.

He, however, said that the training they went through was different than the one required by space tourists, whose training was only for six months.

"Perhaps, I should also prove to them (NASA) that I am capable of doing the best. Hopefully, after this I will get to go to space longer, perhaps six months and be given the opportunity to work with NASA and to prove to them that we are as good their astronauts," he said.

Meanwhile, recalling the experience during landing in the Soyuz TMA-10 capsule, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar said he felt difficulty breathing and his chest felt like an elephant stepping on it.

"It felt like an elephant stepping on your chest... it pressed on your chest so hard that you felt like you were not able to breathe and uncomfortable. But we had been taught to breathe through our abdomen and release the air through the chest, the training saved us," he added.

During the interview, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar also took the opportunity to thank all Malaysians for their prayers and hoped Malaysia would produce more angkasawan and scientists in future.
He also hoped that Malaysia would make further inroads in aerospace development and produce its own rocket for a space mission.

--BERNAMA--