Kazakhstan: Soyuz Craft Lifts Crew into Space

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) — A Russian spacecraft soared from the Kazakh steppe toward the international space station Wednesday, carrying a Malaysian, a Russian, and Peggy Whitson, the American who will become the first woman to command the orbital outpost.

The Soyuz-FG rocket lifted off on schedule, rising into a darkening sky over the Russian-operated Baikonur launch facility. It was topped by a spacecraft that is to deliver Whitson, veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, a Malaysian physician, to the space station Friday.

Whitson, 47, of Beaconsfield, Iowa, is making her second trip to the station.

Sheikh Muszaphar, a 35-year-old orthopedic surgeon, is to spend about 10 days on the station, performing experiments involving diseases and the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cells and genes.

Sheikh Muszaphar is not the first Muslim in space — Saudi Prince Sultan bin Salman joined the crew of the shuttle Discovery in 1985. Nevertheless, Malaysian newspapers on Wednesday devoted several pages and published special pullouts about the mission, which coincides with the last days of Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims fast from dawn until sundown.

Sheikh Muszaphar has vowed to keep fasting and praying in space, even though Malaysian clerics said he could postpone the fast until he returns to Earth.

The $25 million agreement for a Malaysian astronaut to fly to space was negotiated in 2003 along with a $900 million deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian fighter jets.

Whitson and Malenchenko, 45, are to replace two of the station’s current crew who are due to return to Earth on Oct. 21 long with Sheikh Muszaphar.

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