S. Korea narrows astronaut hopefuls down to 10

Amid nationwide attention, South Korea has picked 10 candidates from about 36,000 applicants to continue their bid to become the country's first astronaut, the government said Friday.

South Korea plans to select two candidates from a public selection process by the end of this year as part of a plan to send one of the two into orbit aboard Russia's Soyuz spacecraft in April 2008.

The 10 hopefuls who proved worthy to continue competing were selected during a month-long physical and space aptitude screening session of 30 applicants at an aerospace medical center in Cheongju, about 137 kilometers south of Seoul, the Ministry of Science and Technology said.

The remaining pool, which includes three women, are all in their 20s or 30s, mostly researchers working in various fields of science or engineering, including physics, chemistry and artificial intelligence.

Of these, eight will be selected to travel to Russia next month for in-depth space adaptability tests to be supervised by space experts there. Russian and South Korean experts will select six aspirants, from which experts will ultimately pick the final two on Dec. 25.

In September 2005, South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun met with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow and signed an agreement to cooperate on space development, including a plan to cooperate in putting a South Korean into space.

Seoul, Nov. 24 (Yonhap News)