South Korea Chose A Woman For Its First Space Mission

[Kalyan]

South Korea Chose A Woman For Its First Space Mission

South Korea delegated a 29-year-old female bioengineering student to be its first astronaut to go into space, authorities announced on Monday. Yi So-yeon will replace Ko San, who was initially chosen for the mission, but broke the training protocol twice, which determined the Russian Federal Space Agency, who will send the astronaut on the International Space Station, to ask for a switch.

Although it wasn't exactly the outcome the South Korean authorities had hoped for, as they had high expectations for their initial candidate, women's groups all over the country have been extremely proud with the selection.

"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 as men," said Kim Ji-young, university professor ahead of the Korea Federation of Women's Science and Technology Association, The New York Times reports.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology acknowledged the mistakes Ko made, saying however he unintentionally broke the protocol. Lee Sang-mok, the head of the Ministry's Space Technology Bureau, said during a news conference that the Russian Federal Space Agency asked for the replacement motivating that even the slightest mistakes could have serious consequences in space.

Lee explained Yi will perfectly adjust to her new mission, as she has been selected, as well as Ko, from 36,000 candidates for the job, and she is very well prepared. Ko will continue to train at the Russian Space Center.

Yi's mission will start on April 8, when she will start her journey into space aboard Russia's Soyuz rocket. She is scheduled to spend at least eight days on the International Space Station, where she will conduct a series of scientific tests.

South Korea will thus become the 36th country to send a person into space, and this is just the first step from a more ambitious plan Seoul has for the next 20 years, as they are planning a moon land by 2025, according to their own estimations.


SOurce : eFlux