Competition winner named as SKorea's first astronaut
SEOUL (AFP) — A scientist who is also a keen boxer was named Wednesday as South Korea's first astronaut after a contest which involved 36,000 applicants.
The Science and Technology Ministry said Ko San, a former researcher at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, was selected over Yi So-Yeon, a 28-year-old female researcher at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science.
Ko will board Russia's Soyuz spacecraft at Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan next April and stay in space for up to eight days aboard the International Space Station.
He will conduct 18 experiments as a payload specialist, checking noise levels, the effect of the weightless environment on the human body, and the impact of space on the growth of living organisms, the ministry said.
Ko, 30, is now a researcher into artificial intelligence and robots at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.
He won a bronze medal in the national amateur boxing competition in 2004.
Yi will continue training with Russian astronauts as a reserve for Ko.
The announcement ended months of competition between Ko and Yi, who were selected out of 36,000 applicants last year.
The two finalists have been training at Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre near Moscow since January.
"The astronaut programme is needed because it can provide vital know-how that can form the foundation of future development in this field," said Vice Science Minister Chung Yoon.
South Korea plans to launch its first space rocket next year, becoming the ninth country to do so.
A space centre on the south coast is 90 percent complete after construction began in late 2000 at a cost of 265 billion won (285 million dollars).
The rocket will put a small satellite into orbit for scientific research and atmospheric surveys.
