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South Korea launched its first ever astronaut into space

As if the Koreans were not satisfied in conquering the air time of the Philippines with their numerous Koreanovelas, South Korea just launched its first ever astronaut to conquer the outer space. Yi So-yeon, a 29 year old bioengineer with cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Volkov will spend lovely time in a cramped capsule before docking at the space station. The South Korean government has a $20 million (€12.7 million) deal with Russia to co-sponsor the flight in exchange for Yi’s trip. She was among 36,000 applicants for the job in a 2006 nationwide competition, and plans to conduct 18 scientific experiments during her nine days on the space station.

She was originally chosen as a backup to Ko San, an expert in artificial intelligence. But Ko was replaced by Yi in March after Russian officials accused him of the unauthorized removal of technical manuals from the Star City cosmonaut training center near Moscow.

Ko apologized and shrugged off his disappointment at losing his seat on the flight. His employer, the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute, has rebuked him.

The U.S. space agency NASA said Yi was also the youngest female astronaut.

The drama behind Ko’s replacement by Yi has drawn intense attention from the South Korean and Russian media. About 50 journalists from the Korean SBS network are in Baikonur to cover the flight.

In the South Korean capital, Seoul, thousands were gathered in front of City Hall to watch a live telecast of the launch. President Lee Myung-bak told a Cabinet meeting that he hoped the event would boost interest in space business and research.

Yi, who received her doctorate degree in February, has pledged to cook a Korean meal for the crew members at the station, and promised to sing a song for her Soyuz crew mates on Wednesday — Cosmonauts’ Day.

Yi is to return to Earth on April 19 along with two of the station’s current occupants, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko.

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  3. By Clau on Apr 19, 2008 | Reply

    :grin: yeah! Everyone was tuned to the television everywhere I went. I am very happy to see a Korean woman stepping up!

    Clau’s last blog post..Pleated Geography

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