Thursday, October 11, 2007

First Malaysian in space

Yesterday, October 10, is a historic date for Malaysia. It marks the first Malaysian to go into space. At exactly 9.22pm (Malaysian time), the Soyuz -FG rocket launcher blasted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Malaysians watched the event live on tv.




The rocket launcher, carrying the Soyuz TMA-II spacecraft with Malaysian cosmonaut Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor and crew members on board, lit up the clear night sky.
Also on the spacecraft were Nasa’s commander Peggy Whitson – the first female International Space Station (ISS) commander – and Russian Yuri Malechencko.
Many people feel it is a waste to be spending so much money to send just one person into space and that the resources would have been better used elsewhere. What do you think?





5 comments:

  1. Cherating... we have a problemo... There are turtles everywhere!

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  2. Seriously, I think it's still a good idea, to explore space, since we're really messing up the world... but I can also see the point people make abt using that money spent to clear up worldly messes instead.. so how?

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  3. That's one small but very expensive step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

    What people often fail to realize is that space research and development tends to produce a lot of unexpected fringe benefits for everyday life. Look at a modern kitchen. How many items in there, from no-stick frying pans to utensils made of light composites to instant drink mixes, had their roots in some country's aerospace program?

    When we stop exploring, we stop living.

    Word verification:
    Don't gripe about the costs of reaching out
    Or claim it brings us nothing worth our while.
    Verbose naysayers like to scream and shout.
    Do you want to start hurling the same bile?
    Unlid your eyes, I say, and look!
    With space research, more ways to cook!

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  4. If you can afford it, and it's not at the expense of other more pressing needs, then why not, if something good can come out of it!

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  5. If we could send Cheney and Bush into permanent orbit it would be worth almost any price.

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