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Vowing to keep the Ramadan fast and pray every day, a Muslim astronaut prepared to blast off into space today at the end of the Islamic holy month.

Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor vowed he would share his experiences with "Muslims all over the world" when he returns from the International Space Station on October 21, after his Russian-run mission.

Such is the 35-year-old physician's hero status in his home country of Malaysia that local clerics even issued a decree excusing him from fulfilling his religious duties in Ramadan, which include fasting from sunrise to sunset.

However, before today's blast-off in Kazakhstan, the astronaut wrote in his web journal that he “definitely would be praying and fasting in space".

“I am not sure how it would be done, but I will share my experiences [with] all the Muslims all over the world when I get back," he wrote.

Islam requires that he faces Mecca for prayer - a direction that will change as the craft orbits the Earth - but the clerics have made an exception to this, too, deciding that the exact location matters only for the start of the ritual.

Sheikh Shukor's bid has caused patriotic fervour in his home country, as he is the first Malaysian ever to fly into space. Television networks are planning live broadcasts and the country's newspapers devoted several pages to the mission.

He will be accompanied by Peggy Whitson, an American, and Yuri Malenchenko, a Russian, during the 12-day stay on the space station to conduct scientific experiments.

As engineers checked the mounted rocket and began fuelling it, medics and flight specialists did final medical tests on the three and pressure checks on their space suits.

“I feel great. I just can’t wait to go up for the Malaysian people,” Sheikh Muszaphar told reporters as he boarded a bus to take him to the launchpad.

As the launch approached Sergei Semchenko, a Russian space official, presented Ms Whitson with a traditional three-pronged Kazakh whip.

The American, who is believed to be the first woman to command the International Space Station, laughed as she was presented with the gift, saying she would take it on board with her. She said the trip symbolised harmony between the West and Islam, after years of political fallout.

Sheikh Muszaphar beat more than 11,000 applicants in a nation-wide search that began in 2003 to be Malaysia’s first astronaut.

He said he was taking vacuum-packed Malaysian food, including skewered chicken, banana rolls, fermented soybean cakes and ginger jelly, to celebrate Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan, in space.

“I hope to ... share them with the rest of the cosmonauts,” he wrote. “I am hoping to introduce Malaysian culture and tradition to the whole world.”

The bachelor, who underwent months of training in Russia before the mission, is to experiment with microbes of tropical diseases and proteins for a potential HIV vaccine, as well as study the effects of microgravity and space radiation on cancer cells and human genes.

The $25 million (£12.3million) agreement for a Malaysian to fly to space was negotiated in 2003 after a US$900 million (£443million) deal for Malaysia to buy 18 Russian fighter jets.

He is believed to be the ninth Muslim to travel into space. The first, Prince Sultan bin Salman Abdul Aziz al-Saud, from Saudi Arabia, was on the American space shuttle Discovery in 1985.

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