The Korean Astronaut Program was an initiative by the
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...
n government to send the first
Korean
Korean may refer to:
People and culture
* Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula
* Korean cuisine
* Korean culture
* Korean language
**Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl
**Korean dialects and the Jeju language
** ...
into space via the Russian space program. A ten day flight to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...
(ISS) with astronaut
Yi So-yeon occurred in 2008.
First astronaut class
On December 25, 2006, two candidates—one woman and one man—were selected by South Korea during a ceremony held at
SBS television center in Dungchon-dong, Seoul. This choice was the result of a comprehensive selection process which started with the screening of 36,000 applications.
*
Ko San (36, male, unmarried, researcher at
Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affi ...
)
*
Yi So-yeon (34, female, unmarried, researcher at the
KAIST
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, resear ...
)
Other finalists
The eight other finalists were:
*Park Ji-young (23, female, master's course student at the
Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology)
*Yun Seok-oh (29, male, unmarried, official at
Hanyang University
Hanyang University (Korean: 한양대학교) is a private research university in South Korea. The main campus is located in Seoul and its satellite campus, the Education Research Industry Cluster (ERICA campus), is in Ansan. ''Hanyang'' (한양, ...
)
*Lee Jin-young (36, male, married, squadron leader at
Republic of Korea Air Force
The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF; ko, 대한민국 공군; RR: ''Daehanminguk Gong-gun''), also known as the ROK Air Force or South Korean Air Force, is the aerial warfare service branch of South Korea, operating under the Ministry of N ...
)
*Jang Joon-sung (25, male, unmarried, lieutenant at
Bucheon Nambu Police Station)
*Ryu Jeong-won (33, male, married, chief technology officer at
IT Magic Co.
It or IT may refer to:
* It (pronoun), in English
* Information technology
Arts and media Film and television
* ''It'' (1927 film), a film starring Clara Bow
* ''It! The Terror from Beyond Space'', a 1958 science fiction film
* ''It!'' (1967 ...
)
*Lee Han-gyu (33, male, unmarried, researcher at
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
SDI)
*Choi Ah-jeong (24, female, unmarried, master's course student at
Seoul National University
Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a national public research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is largely considered the most prestigious university in South Korea; it is one of the thr ...
)
*Kim Young-min (33, male, married, researcher at
Korea Basic Science Institute
The Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI; ) is a Korean government-funded research institute that conducts basic science research and relevant pure basic research. KBSI was established in August 1988 as a research institute under the National ...
)
First space mission
The winning pair was sent to Russia in early 2007 to undergo a 15-month training course at the
Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow.
On September 5, 2007, Ko San was named as the prime candidate, whilst Yi So-yeon served as his backup.
However, on March 10, 2008 it was announced that the prime candidate would be changed to Yi So-yeon due to several violations of training protocol by Ko San. Ko San served as backup.
On April 8, 2008
Yi So-yeon took off from the Baikonur
space center in Kazakhstan at 11:16 GMT aboard
Soyuz TMA-12. She spent ten days conducting scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station.
It cost South Korea approximately 26 billion won (US$28 million) to pay for the training and spaceflight.
Post-first mission
In 2014,
Yi So-yeon resigned from the program to pursue an MBA, which was incompatible with continuing as an astronaut.
References
External links
The Korean astronaut program
{{South Korean Space Program
Space program of South Korea
Soyuz program
2008 in spaceflight
2008 in South Korea