The Korean Astronaut Program was an initiative by the

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

n government to send the first

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, ethnic group originating in the Korean Peninsula * Korean cuisine * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Chosŏn'gŭl **Korean dialects and the Jeju language ** ...

into space via the Russian space program. A ten day flight to the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ...

(ISS) with astronaut

Yi So-yeon Yi So-yeon (born June 2, 1978) is a South Korean astronaut and biotechnologist who became the first Korean to fly in space. Upon return from her mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Yi continued as a KARI researcher attending ...

occurred in 2008.

First astronaut class

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. *

Ko San Ko San (born October 19, 1976) is CEO and founder of TIDE Institute and ATEAM Ventures. Biography Ko, San was born in Busan, South Korea. A graduate of Hanyoung Foreign Language High School, Ko studied mathematics and cognitive science at Se ...

(36, male, unmarried, researcher at

Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

) *

(34, female, unmarried, researcher at the

KAIST The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, resear ...

)

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 The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) is a national research university located in Daedeok Innopolis, Daejeon, South Korea. KAIST was established by the Korean government in 1971 as the nation's first public, researc ...

) *Yun Seok-oh (29, male, unmarried, official at

Hanyang University Hanyang University (Korean: 한양대학교) is a private research university in South Korea. The main campus is located in Seoul and its satellite campus, the Education Research Industry Cluster (ERICA campus), is in Ansan. ''Hanyang'' (한양, ...

) *Lee Jin-young (36, male, married, squadron leader at

Republic of Korea Air Force The Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF; ko, 대한민국 공군; RR: ''Daehanminguk Gong-gun''), also known as the ROK Air Force or South Korean Air Force, is the aerial warfare service branch of South Korea, operating under the Ministry of N ...

) *Jang Joon-sung (25, male, unmarried, lieutenant at Bucheon Nambu Police Station) *Ryu Jeong-won (33, male, married, chief technology officer at IT Magic Co.) *Lee Han-gyu (33, male, unmarried, researcher at

Samsung The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...

SDI) *Choi Ah-jeong (24, female, unmarried, master's course student at

Seoul National University Seoul National University (SNU; ) is a national public research university located in Seoul, South Korea. Founded in 1946, Seoul National University is largely considered the most prestigious university in South Korea; it is one of the three "S ...

) *Kim Young-min (33, male, married, researcher at

Korea Basic Science Institute The Korea Basic Science Institute (KBSI; ) is a Korean government-funded research institute that conducts basic science research and relevant pure basic research. KBSI was established in August 1988 as a research institute under the National R ...

)

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 The Yuri A. Gagarin State Scientific Research-and-Testing Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC; Russian: Центр подготовки космонавтов имени Ю. А. Гагарина) is a Russian training facility responsible for train ...

near Moscow. On September 5, 2007, Ko San was named as the prime candidate, whilst Yi So-yeon served as his backup. 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. On April 8, 2008

took off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 11:16 GMT aboard

Soyuz TMA-12 Soyuz TMA-12 was a Soyuz mission to the International Space Station (ISS) which was launched by a Soyuz FG rocket at 11:16 UTC on 8 April 2008. It docked to the Pirs module of the station on 10 April 2008. Landing occurred at 03:37 on 24 October ...

. She spent ten days conducting scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station. It cost South Korea approximately 26 billion won (US$28 million) to pay for the training and spaceflight.

Post-first mission

In 2014,

resigned from the program to pursue an MBA, which was incompatible with continuing as an astronaut.

References

External links

The Korean astronaut program
{{South Korean Space Program Space program of South Korea Soyuz program 2008 in spaceflight 2008 in South Korea