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The Korean Astronaut Program (Korean: 한국 우주인 배출 사업) was an initiative by the South Korean 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]
| Korean Astronaut Program | |
| Hangul | 한국 우주인 배출 사업 |
|---|---|
| Hanja | 韓國宇宙人輩出事業 |
| Revised Romanization | Hanguk ujuin baechul saeop |
| McCune–Reischauer | Han'guk ujuin paech'ul saŏp |
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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]
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