Her fame grew as she advanced to the final four, but it was Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor who eventually embarked on the Russian Soyuz TMA-11 mission on Oct 10, 2007.
Vanajah, 52, has since gone down the academic path and is now an assistant professor at the School of Engineering at Sweden’s Jönköping University.
While pursuing her own endeavours outside Malaysia, she still contributes to the country through online talks with local universities, which she does pro bono.
Speaking with FMT recently, she said: “Although I’m not in Malaysia, I still give talks online. I still do interviews with the media, hoping that my story will inspire someone.
“When your article comes out and it inspires one young woman, I’d be happy to know I’ve made a difference.”
Despite the disappointment of not being selected for the space programme, Vanajah spent time after the training to travel across the country to schools, universities and corporations to share her experience and insights.
She describes the training she had to undergo in 2006 as an “arduous experience”. The days were marked by either aeromedical examinations or survival training, and nobody knew the order in which these came.
“We were never informed of what was coming,” she recalled. “We were not given an agenda or an itinerary. We were given orders that were followed to the letter without a word or question. It was very military.”
Among the most gruelling tests, Vanajah said, was the centrifuge examination. The one that took place in Malaysia involved gravitational forces of up to 9Gs.
“I sprained my ankle when I came out because I had to stress all the muscles in my body so that I wouldn’t pass out during those 18 seconds,” she said.
Towards the end, Vanajah and three others were flown to Russia where they went through the same battery of tests again. Despite the physical toll these took on her, it was all worth it when she was told she had qualified to become an astronaut.
Vanajah hails the programme as a major achievement for Malaysia, saying it signified how far the nation had come since Merdeka. “We are on the map now when it comes to space exploration.”
She said many valuable lessons could be learnt from the experience of sending a Malaysian into space.
“We have an astronaut already and we have a backup candidate. We must make use of them to support learning about space technology and exploration.”