March 22, 2008 South Korea's First
Woman Astronaut Approved for Flight By Alissa
de Carbonnel
Star City (Russia)
"I will not fly as So-Yeon, not just as a person but as the first
Korean astronaut," said the 29-year-old woman who has officially
qualified to be South Korea's ambassador to space.
Yi So-Yeon, who stepped in mid-training to replace her compatriot Ko
San after he was disqualified, beamed at Wednesday's press
conference attended by a dozen Korean journalists, some carrying
glossy celebrity shots of the astronaut-to-be.
"As a Korean, I will try to make peace between the North and South
Korean people," Yi valiantly told the assembled journalists.
"The North Korean people will also be proud of my own flight."
"But to my parents I am just a daughter," Yi said, admitting to high
tension before the launch. "My mother prays for me every night so I
know that God will watch over and help me."
At Russia's historic space training centre Star City, founded in the
1960s northeast of Moscow, Yi was approved Wednesday to join Russian
cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko in the cramped Soyuz
capsule for the 17th journey to the International Space Station (ISS).
Nanotechnology engineer Yi, who lists singing as one of her hobbies,
said, "Maybe I will sing in the cosmos. I hope the American and
Russian guys will like my singing."
Yi, who during her 12 days on the ISS will conduct a range of
scientific experiments, also said she looks forward to sharing with
her fellow astronauts "a big dinner of Korean food", including a
specially engineered version of South Korea's traditional pickled
dish Gimchi.
Asked what she would carry to space, Yi said in addition to soap,
clothes and family pictures, "I want to bring a Korean traditional
costume, but it is big and heavy so I will have to check with the
flight surgeon".
The two South Korean's in training this past year with their Russian
teammates at Star City were chosen from among 36,000 applicants
vying to become the first South Korean in space - a project which is
costing the Asian state $27 million.
Ko, a computer engineer, was taken off the mission for violating
procedures by copying and taking training manuals off the base and
mailing a handbook with his personal belongings back home in
September.
"Ko was carelessly handling the training manual, and repeated his
mistake. Twice he didn't follow our orders," a representative of the
Korean space programme in Star City told DPA.
He added that the Russian side sought the swap as even minor
mistakes or infractions could have serious repercussions in space.
The Korean official said: "She (Yi) is very popular - it fits
because traditionally in South Korea women are better than men in
many fields."
Ko in turn told journalists he wished his countrywoman a successful
voyage as she is set to blast off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur
cosmodrome April 8.
South Korea's government has ambitiously spent to improve its
national scientific competitiveness and enter the hierarchy of the
world's space powers. The country has a satellite launch centre on
the island of Oenaro off its southern coast and is planning its own
lunar orbit by 2020.
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