"When I saw the Earth from space, my heart stopped beating for a while, my eyes did not blink at all. I was bewildered, it's something very exciting and great," he said in an exclusive interview with Bernama's Radio 24 yesterday.

Getting a rare chance to see the wonder of God from the ISS orbiting 350km from earth, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar said in his heart that he would share this wonderful and interesting experience with all Malaysians upon his return to earth.

"I'm lost for words to visualise and describe to Malaysians what I saw from space but I wrote down in my diary the greatness of God to share with fellow Malaysians," said the 35-year-old orthopaedic surgeon.

In the interview, the first upon his return to earth on Sunday, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar also acknowledged that the two days he was in the Soyuz TMA-10 capsule before docking with the ISS was a valuable experience which he would not forget in his lifetime.

"We were floating for two days inside the Soyuz, moving from one place to another, only pushing our legs, it's a great experience. When I landed on earth, I felt heavy even to raise my hands, imagine the cosmonauts staying in the ISS for six months," he said.

Malaysia created history at 6.37pm on Sunday when its first angkasawan returned to earth after an 11-day stint at the ISS during which he conducted studies on the effects of micro gravity and space radiation on cells and microbes and experiments with proteins.

He said he fulfilled his religious obligations while he was in space as he was supplied with books on ways to perform prayers in space by the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia (Jakim).

He also had the opportunity to share Aidilfitri joy with the Russian and American astronauts in the ISS, eating with them the Malaysian delicacies he had brought along.

Dr Sheikh Muszaphar said that when he entered the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft for the first time, he was not scared or nervous but was cool and calm.

"What was uppermost on my mind was to realise the nation's mission and vision to send a Malaysian to space. That was my focus for a year and I maintained my composure."

"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 descent 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. In line with normal procedure, they were flown quickly after landing to the Star City cosmonaut preparation center outside Moscow for a post-flight rehabilitation course.

"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 immediately clear, and space officials have started an investigation. The landing capsule will be transported to Moscow for examination.

"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."

Sheikh Muszaphar, who is Muslim, also said that during the flight he prayed five times a day and fasted, as his mission coincided with the last days of Ramadan, the holy month when Muslims refrain from eating and drinking from dawn until sundown.

He said he hoped his flight would send a message of peace to the Islamic world. "I hope other Muslims would be united, stay away from war and be peaceful," he said.

Yurchikhin, who returned to Earth after six months at the international space station, said the most difficult part of his stint was fixing computers that crashed in June on the Russian side of the station, limiting its ability to maneuver and produce oxygen.

The Soyuz spacecraft, designed in the mid-1960s, has been a reliable but plodding workhorse for the Russian program that is still reeling from the impact of the post-Soviet economic meltdown.

Russia helped deliver U.S. astronauts and cargo to the space station following the 2003 accident involving the shuttle Columbia.

The remaining crew of the station - U.S. astronauts Peggy Whitson and Clayton Anderson, and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko - are getting ready for the arrival of the Discovery space shuttle that blasted off Tuesday from Cape Canaveral with a crew of seven.

Whitson, the station's first female commander, flew with Malenchenko and Sheikh Muszaphar on a Soyuz spacecraft that lifted off from the Russian-leased launch facility in Kazakhstan on Oct. 10.

She and Malenchenko are to spend six months in orbit, while Anderson - aboard since June - is to be replaced by astronaut Daniel Tani, who is on Discovery.

Discovery's two-week mission is considered the most challenging and complex in the nine years of orbital assembly of the international space station. It is carrying an Italian-built living compartment, about the size of a small bus, that the astronauts will attach to the station.