Finally, our long awaited moment of glory Angkasawan is now in space. An inspiration to all, TheStar. Here is some of the background,

The Angkasawan project is a joint programme with the Russian Federation. A project under the government-to-government offset agreement through the purchase of Sukhoi SU-30MKM fighter jets for the Royal Malaysian Air Force.

Agreement: Russian Federation will bear the cost of training (18 months of training at Astronaut Training Programme in Star City, Russia) of two Malaysians and to send one to the International Space Station (ISS) in October 2007.

However, some claims that the cost to send the astronaut to space worth RM 100 million. While our government says it is fully financed by the Russian government, as part of the Sukhoi-30MKM fighter jet purchase agreement. It is a waste of tax payer dollar or not does matter? Yes, if the whole program is what to be taking a taxi ride to space, see Spaceflight Participant as defined by NASA. Not, if the whole program has both scientific and technological objectives, but is also conceived as inspirational. I think most probably the whole program is just an inspiration for our future generation, why? do you think our Angkasawan are able to knowledge transfer his training from Russia to other people as we do not have our own space programme.
Either or not the Angkasawan bring us any benefits, but it definitely inspire our kid your children to have another ambition to chase for just like Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space) and Neil Armstrong (first man on the moon) still inspire many today. Maybe someday, somewhere in the future, there will be someone from Malaysia who really by his own ability to be able to become an Astronaut.