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Born in in 1951, Datuk Dr has recently been reappointed as the Head of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UN-OOSA).

She held this post before, leaving it to become Director-General of the Science, Technology and Environment Ministry running Malaysia's space programme.

She recently attended the UN/IAF Workshop on Food Security which was held just before the 2007 IAC in Hyderabad, .

Dr Othman, October 2007 was an important month in the history of the Malaysian space effort as it saw the launch of the first Malaysian (angkasawan), Dr , into space. How did the Malaysian space programme start?

The Malaysian government funded and built a planetarium in in 1990 and I had been part of a group of experts who helped set the idea in motion. The Malaysian public had previously been quite disengaged in regards to space. I would report the latest facts and figures, even to government ministers, and I'd watch eyes glaze over!

But with the coming of the planetarium, interest in space started to perk up. I was with the United Nations Outer Space Affairs office in Vienna between 1999 and 2002. The government back at home started to notice the growing public interest in space and in 2002, the Prime Minister at the time, Tun Dr called me back to set up a . It was started to coordinate several Malaysian ministries which were interested in space and communications. It was also set up to plan space regulations, space programmes and space policies.

Now installed in my new job, journalists kept asking me if there would be a Malaysian astronaut now that the country had a space agency. I kept saying "No". I wasn't, to start with, too keen on having an astronaut programme because it would cost money and wasn't a top priority - we had other programmes to do. But the journalists kept on asking - four or five times in 6 months. I had a duty to report these questions to the Prime Minister.

One day he said: "In my opinion, from time to time, a project comes along which can unite the nation. This is such a project."

Malaysia decided to fund an astronaut programme. Suddenly everybody in Malaysia was talking about our space programme and the first Malaysian astronaut to fly to space, Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, is as well-known as any pop star. If we had to choose a way of promoting space, it was one of the better ideas! Young people are being inspired to take up and drive the progress of science - that is a very good thing!

Why does Malaysia need a space agency? Isn't starting a space agency expensive?

The funding of a space agency is something that countries need to take a look at and judge the merits for themselves. In Malaysia's case, we have a large country, a well-developed scientific community, resources, rainforests, urban areas... In our case we thought it seemed the right thing to do.

Not so long ago, only the Russians and Americans could afford to go to space. Now any country can start a space presence for about 10 million (US) dollars. This is a modest budget - technology has improved so much and we can share certain space efforts between countries. No country has to be a specialist in absolutely everything - we can pool expertise and budgets across international borders.

It has taken Malaysia only five years between the setting up of its Space Agency and sending a person into space.

Hence nowadays, if the will is there, it is easier to go to our political masters and justify having a space programme.

You have recently returned to UN-OOSA. What are your plans for the future?

I was director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs between 1999 and 2002 and then went back to my country to help start its Space Agency. This is an ongoing project but this year I have watched our first angkasawan - astronaut - go up into space onboard a Russian Soyuz, take part in activities at the International Space Station and then return safely to Earth.

It has been a challenging and rewarding five years and I have decided to return to the international level. The future is an open book - maybe in the longer term I would like to go back into the educational sphere - developing intellectual capital in the upcoming generation.

Returning to the story of my posting back to UN-OOSA, I am as keen as ever to promote international cooperation which is a key to the future of space.

Alongside developing the Malaysian space programme, in the last five years we have been setting up an inter-Space Agency coordinating committee. The committee works across international boundaries. The idea has caught on and is working very well - we have nine working groups now.

Space is important. Co-ordination in space is very important!