Korean Astronaut Program

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]}

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.^[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

External links

• The Korean astronaut program

• v
• t
• e

South Korean space program

Organizations

• Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA)
• Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI)
• Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI)

Launch sites

• Anheung Proving Ground
• Naro Space Center

Sounding rockets

KARI	KSR-I KSR-II KSR-III Nuri TLV
ADD	Solid-Fuel Space Launch Vehicle TLV[1]

Launch vehicles

KARI	Naro-1 (KSLV-I) Nuri (KSLV-II) KSLV-III (In development)
ADD	Solid-Fuel Space Launch Vehicle[2]

Satellites

• Kitsat
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
• KOMPSAT
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 3A
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 7A
• STSat
  • 1
  • 2A
  • 2B
  • 2C
  • 3
• KOREASAT
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 5
  • 5A
  • 6
  • 7
• CAS500
  • 1
  • 2
• GEO-KOMPSAT
  • 1
  • 2A
  • 2B
  • 3

Space probes

Korea Pathfinder Lunar Orbiter

Contractors

• Hanwha Aerospace
• Hyundai Heavy Industries
• Korea Aerospace Industries
• Korean Air
• LIG Nex1
• Satrec Initiative

Astronauts

• Yi So-yeon
• Ko San

Related institutions

• Agency for Defense Development (ADD)
• KAIST Satellite Technology Research Center (SaTReC)
• National Space Committee
• ROKAF space operations center