Going to Space

"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."