(Agencies)
Updated: 2007-10-10 20:39

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - Medics performed final checks Wednesday on a Russian, American and Malaysian crew preparing to ride a Soyuz rocket to the international space station.

The first Malaysian in space - Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor - will join US astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko aboard the cramped capsule on the two-day trip to the orbiting station.

He will spend about nine days performing experiments on diseases and the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cells and genes.

"I feel great. I just can't wait to go up for the Malaysian people," he told reporters as he boarded a bus to take him down to the launch pad.

As engineers checked the rocket and began fueling it, flight specialists performed pressure checks on the three astronauts' space suits.

Shukor, a 35-year-old physician, will return with the two of the station's current crew - cosmonauts Fyodor Yurchikhin and Oleg Kotov.

Malaysian newspapers on Wednesday devoted several pages and published special pullouts to the mission, which coincides with the last days of Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims fast from dawn until sundown.

Shukor told reporters Tuesday at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome that his trip will be an inspiration for his southeast Asian nation and for Muslims around the world.

"It's a small step for me, but a great leap for the Malaysian people," he said, rephrasing Neil Armstrong's legendary words after the Apollo landing on the Moon.

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.