Engineering:Korean Astronaut Program

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Short description: Program that sent first South Korean to space in 2008
Korean Astronaut Program

The Korean Astronaut Program (Korean한국 우주인 배출 사업) was an initiative by the South Korea n government to send the first Korean into space via the Russian space program. A ten day flight to the International Space Station (ISS) with astronaut Yi So-yeon occurred in 2008.[needs update]

First astronaut class

Yi So-yeon with NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson (right), Expedition 16 commander, and Russian Federal Space Agency cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko (middle), flight engineer, at the International Space Station in April 2008.

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.[1]

  • Ko San (36, male, unmarried, researcher at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology)[2]
  • Yi So-yeon (34, female, unmarried, researcher at the KAIST)[3]

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) [4]
  • Yun Seok-oh (29, male, unmarried, official at Hanyang University) [5]
  • Lee Jin-young (36, male, married, squadron leader at Republic of Korea Air Force ) [6]
  • Jang Joon-sung (25, male, unmarried, lieutenant at Bucheon Nambu Police Station) [7]
  • Ryu Jeong-won (33, male, married, chief technology officer at IT Magic Co.) [8]
  • Lee Han-gyu (33, male, unmarried, researcher at Samsung SDI) [9]
  • Choi Ah-jeong (24, female, unmarried, master's course student at Seoul National University) [10]
  • Kim Young-min (33, male, married, researcher at Korea Basic Science Institute) [11]

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.[12] 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.[13]

On April 8, 2008 Yi So-yeon took off from the Baikonur[14] space center in Kazakhstan at 11:16 GMT aboard Soyuz TMA-12. She spent ten days conducting scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station.[15]

It cost South Korea approximately 26 billion won (US$28 million) to pay for the training and spaceflight.[16]

Post-first mission

In 2014, Yi So-yeon resigned from the program to pursue an MBA, which was incompatible with continuing as an astronaut.[17]

References

  1. "lpage/tech/200612/kt2006122521203411810". Times.hankooki.com. http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200612/kt2006122521203411810.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  2. Joachim Becker. "Cosmonaut Biography: Ko San". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/international/english/go_san.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  3. Joachim Becker. "Cosmonaut Biography: Yi Soyeon". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/international/english/lee_so-hyun.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  4. Joachim Becker. "Biographies of Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates: Ji-young Park". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/candidates/english/park_ji-young.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  5. Joachim Becker. "Biographies of Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates: Seok-oh Yoon". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/candidates/english/yoon_seok-oh.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  6. Joachim Becker. "Biographies of Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates: Jin-young Lee". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/candidates/english/lee_jin-young.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  7. Joachim Becker. "Biographies of Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates: Jun-seong Jang". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/candidates/english/jang_jun-seong.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  8. Joachim Becker. "Biographies of Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates: Jeong-won Ryu". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/candidates/english/ryu_jeong-won.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  9. Joachim Becker. "Biographies of Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates: Han-gyu Lee". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/candidates/english/lee_han-gyu.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  10. Joachim Becker. "Biographies of Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates: Ah-jeong Choi". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/candidates/english/choi_ah-jeong.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  11. Joachim Becker. "Biographies of Astronaut and Cosmonaut Candidates: Young-min Kim". spacefacts.de. http://www.spacefacts.de/bios/candidates/english/kim_young-min.htm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  12. "YONHAP NEWS". english.yonhapnews.co.kr. http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/techscience/2007/09/05/68/0601000000AEN20070905003600320F.HTML. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  13. "YONHAP NEWS". english.yonhapnews.co.kr. http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/techscience/2008/03/10/7/0601000000AEN20080310003900320F.HTML. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  14. "BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | First S Korean astronaut launches". news.bbc.co.uk. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7335874.stm. Retrieved 2014-08-26. 
  15. David Nowak (April 21, 2008). "Yi describes bone-jarring return to Earth". NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna24238036. 
  16. Irene Klotz (January 15, 2008). "First Korean astronaut to take soil into space". Reuters. https://www.reuters.com/article/science-space-station-korea-dc-idUKN1513299920080115. 
  17. Brooks Hays (14 August 2014). "Yi So-yeon, Korea's first and only astronaut, resigns". UPI (SpaceDaily). http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Yi_So-yeon_Koreas_first_and_only_astronaut_resigns_999.html. 

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