STAR CITY, RUSSIA — Malaysia’s first space traveler said Tuesday his return from orbit “felt like an elephant pressing on my chest,” but that he and his two Russian crewmates did not black out or panic during a steeper- than-usual descent caused by a technical glitch.
“I was not really scared, it happened so fast,” Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor said of Sunday’s ride back to Earth when the three endured more than eight times the force of gravity. Soyuz crews typically must bear four times the force of gravity when the spacecraft returns.
A technical glitch sent the Soyuz with Sheikh Muszaphar and Russia’s Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov on a steep and off-course path, and their capsule landed short of the designated landing site near the town of Arkalyk in Kazakhstan.
“The overload was really powerful, but nobody fainted or lost eyesight,” Yurchikhin said. “I remember the overload going to 8.5 or 8.6 G.”
Medical tests showed the three were uninjured.
“It felt like an elephant pressing on my chest, but the Russians trained us very well” to handle a rough descent, Sheikh Muszaphar said.
The cause of the glitch wasn’t clear. The landing capsule will be transported to Moscow for examination.
Sheikh Muszaphar, who spent 11 days in space and conducted scientific experiments with cancer cells, proteins and microbes of tropical diseases, looked jubilant and said he was ready to go back into orbit.
“I was living the dream of all Malaysian people,” the 35-year-old doctor said. “I hope to go back and inspire a generation of Malaysian youth.”
