"Woman Replaces Colleague for South Korea’s First Space Mission
By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea — South Korea announced Monday that a woman who is a bioengineering student would become its first astronaut. She is scheduled to blast off on board a Russian Soyuz rocket on April 8 on a trip to the International Space Station that will be watched on television by millions of South Koreans.
The astronaut, Yi So-yeon, 29, was selected after the Russian space authorities accused the South Korean man who was initially chosen for the mission of breaking training rules.
While South Korea appeared unhappy that it had been asked to make the switch so close to the scheduled launching, women’s groups said Ms. Yi’s participation was likely to further improve the status of women in South Korea’s traditionally male-dominated society.
The astronaut she replaced, Ko San, 30, a computer engineer, was selected for the mission in August after beating 36,000 contestants in a nationwide government competition in which almost any South Korean could apply. Ms. Yi, who came in second in the competition, has been training with Mr. Ko in Russia as his backup since last year.
With less than a month to go before the start of the mission, the South Korean government, which is financing the $27 million trip, decided to replace Mr. Ko with Ms. Yi after a recommendation from the Federal Space Agency in Russia.
The Russian agency told South Korea last week that Mr. Ko had committed “repeated breaches of training protocol,” including taking training manuals out of the training center without permission, said Lee Sang-mok, an official at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
“The Russian space agency has stressed that a minor mistake and disobedience can cause serious consequences in space,” Mr. Lee said during a nationally televised news conference. “So the honor of becoming South Korea’s first astronaut now goes to a woman.”
Paik Hong-yul, president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, which oversees South Korea’s space program, said Mr. Ko had made “mistakes out of his overenthusiasm in training.”
·According to the mission’s schedule, Ms. Yi, who had just finished her master’s degree in bioengineering before taking up her mission, is to return to Earth on April 19 after conducting scientific experiments at the International Space Station. Mr. Ko will continue to train with Ms. Yi and assist her mission from the ground, the government said.
“This is good news for South Korean women, especially those engaged in science and technology,” said Kim Ji-young, a university professor who leads the Korea Federation of Women’s Science and Technology Associations. “She can be a role model and encourage Korean women who want to enter science and technology, where women have faced bigger walls in finding jobs than men.”
Ms. Yi’s mission will make South Korea the 35th country to send an astronaut into space since Russia first sent Yuri Gagarin into orbit in 1961.
So far, 34 countries, including Vietnam, Mongolia and Afghanistan, have sent more than 470 astronauts into space. Fewer than 50 of them were women, starting with Valentina Tereshkova of Russia, in 1963."
3/16/2008
Mayhem for the Western Zang 西藏乱七八糟
"DHARAMSALA, India (Thomson Financial) - The Dalai Lama on Sunday condemned what he called China's 'rule of terror' and 'cultural genocide' in Tibet, calling for an international probe into unrest in his homeland.
'They simply rely on using force in order to simulate peace, a peace brought by force using a rule of terror,' the Tibetan spiritual leader said in Dharamsala in northern India, seat of Tibet's government-in-exile.
'Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some cultural genocide is taking place. There is some kind of discrimination: the Tibetans in their own land quite often are treated as second-class citizens,' he said.
'Please investigate, if possible... some
international organization can try firstly to inquire about the situation in Tibet.'
But the Dalai Lama -- who has made Dharamsala his home in exile since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese forces in 1959 -- refrained from calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in August, as many Tibetan exiles have been demanding.
'The Chinese people... need to feel proud of it. China deserves to be a host of the Olympic Games,' he said, saying however that Beijing also needed to be 'reminded to be a good host.'
The Dalai Lama's comments came hours after China declared a 'people's war' in Tibet following the biggest uprising against Chinese rule there in nearly 20 years.
Eighty people have been confirmed dead, the Tibetan government-in-exile said here, contradicting the official account in China's state-run media that there were just 10 fatalities.
When asked about the death toll, the Dalai Lama said: 'We have different sources: some say 10, some say 30, some say 60, some say 80, 100. I do not know.'
'Some trusted group should go there and see how it happened,' he added.
The Dalai Lama also appealed to China to recognize that he wanted autonomy for Tibet, and not independence, and that his campaign was non-violent.
When asked if he was able to bring an end to Tibetan protests, he said, 'I have no such power.'
'I do feel helpless.'
The unrest in Tibet followed three days of protests by hundreds of monks in Lhasa, India and elsewhere around the world marking the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising.
The Dalai Lama has long complained that Beijing is flooding Tibet with Han Chinese in order to make the Tibetans a minority in their Buddhist homeland."
Source: Forbes
'They simply rely on using force in order to simulate peace, a peace brought by force using a rule of terror,' the Tibetan spiritual leader said in Dharamsala in northern India, seat of Tibet's government-in-exile.
'Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some cultural genocide is taking place. There is some kind of discrimination: the Tibetans in their own land quite often are treated as second-class citizens,' he said.
'Please investigate, if possible... some
international organization can try firstly to inquire about the situation in Tibet.'
But the Dalai Lama -- who has made Dharamsala his home in exile since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese forces in 1959 -- refrained from calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in August, as many Tibetan exiles have been demanding.
'The Chinese people... need to feel proud of it. China deserves to be a host of the Olympic Games,' he said, saying however that Beijing also needed to be 'reminded to be a good host.'
The Dalai Lama's comments came hours after China declared a 'people's war' in Tibet following the biggest uprising against Chinese rule there in nearly 20 years.
Eighty people have been confirmed dead, the Tibetan government-in-exile said here, contradicting the official account in China's state-run media that there were just 10 fatalities.
When asked about the death toll, the Dalai Lama said: 'We have different sources: some say 10, some say 30, some say 60, some say 80, 100. I do not know.'
'Some trusted group should go there and see how it happened,' he added.
The Dalai Lama also appealed to China to recognize that he wanted autonomy for Tibet, and not independence, and that his campaign was non-violent.
When asked if he was able to bring an end to Tibetan protests, he said, 'I have no such power.'
'I do feel helpless.'
The unrest in Tibet followed three days of protests by hundreds of monks in Lhasa, India and elsewhere around the world marking the anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising.
The Dalai Lama has long complained that Beijing is flooding Tibet with Han Chinese in order to make the Tibetans a minority in their Buddhist homeland."
Source: Forbes
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