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Malaysians to Vote on First Astronaut

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the pick-me-pick-me dept.

wengkius writes "According to BBC, Malaysians will be voting for their candidate of choice in the nationwide search for an astronaut to be sent to the ISS on board the Russian Soyuz spacecraft. Once its 11,000 would-be astronauts have been whittled down to a handful, their details and updates on their progress will be posted on the internet. If the contest proves popular and the government charges for the votes, it may even be able to cover the cost of its space program."

5 of 140 comments (clear)

  1. Malaysia is a bit optimistic by technoextreme · · Score: 1, Interesting

    http://www.space.com/missionlaunches/ap_050829_mal aysia_moon.html NASA says they are going to reach the moon in about the same time the Malaysians say they want to go the moon. NASA believes this is possiblebecause of the fact that we have all this former technology to use (Space Shuttle and Apollo). Malaysia has none of that.

    --
    Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
  2. Re:Obligatory. by Rahga · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I don't know, but seeing as how Mark Shuttleworth and Dennis Tito have been labeled Cosmonauts after completing their training, the same may apply here. One definition of Cosmonaut out there is "A crew member of a space mission launched by the former Soviet Union"

  3. How about a better qualification test? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I would've thought a medical test and some other kind of intelligence test would be better than voting, would'nt it?

  4. Oh My GOD!!!! by Viceice · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Ok. I am now officially embressed to be a Malaysian. Seriously though, this isn't news at all. This is simply a ticket into space our goverment got from the Russians who offered it as a sweetener to close a deal on a fleet of MiG fighters.

    I Seriously wish it was a one way ticket and they'd send our esteemed Defence Minister, who is also our useless ass of a Deputy Prime Minister.

    PLEASE I BEG ALL OF YOU! MOVE ALONG! THERES NOTHING TO SEE HERE!!!!!

    --
    Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
  5. Re:Obligatory. by Viceice · · Score: 2, Interesting

    'Angkasawan'.

    That's the Malay word for astronaut.

    'Angkasa' means space.

    '-wan' is a suffix to denote a man whose occupation is that of the word the suffix is attached to. It's similar to '-ician' (i.e dietician, electrician, politician) in English, but the Malay version is gender specific.

    Also, if the person who goes turns out to be female, then we use the '-wati' suffix instead.

    --
    Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.