Scientists Analyze Experiments of Africa's First Cosmonaut

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, June 04, 2002

Scientists Analyze Experiments of Africa's First Cosmonaut

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South African scientists are working around the clock to analyze the results of the experimentsby Mark Shuttleworth, Africa's first cosmonaut conducted in space,an official said Monday in Johannesburg.

African in Space project team member Dale Cupido said the experiment on Soluble Protein Crystallisation (SCP) was currently being analyzed by University of Port Elizabeth's researcher Vaughan Oosthuizen at a laboratory in Germany.

The tests could give scientists a better understanding of how aperson's immune system functions, which could ultimately lead to abreak-through in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

"The problem facing scientists is that the combatants (immune cells) are too small to observe directly -- we must look at various pieces of evidence to infer what happened," the African inSpace website stated.

"SPC gives scientists a way to look at the weapons used by the immune system with an eye to knowing how to make them more effective."

Cupido said the scientists in the two other experiments were analyzing the results in Cape Town and the results of the experiments would be made public within the next few weeks.

"All the experiments are being analyzed ... we don't know the results yet, but everyone is happy at this stage," Cupido told reporters.

Shuttleworth blasted off into space in April this year after paying the Russia's space agency 20 million U.S. dollar to become the world's second space tourist.

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