The South Korean government on Monday picked two finalists who will undergo intensive tests and training in the coming months to become the country's first astronaut.
Ko San, a researcher at the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, and Yi So-yeon, a doctoral candidate at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, were selected from among 36,206 hopefuls who submitted applications from April through July this year, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) said.
Of the two, only one will travel on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft to the International Space Station in April 2008. The astronaut is scheduled to stay on board the station orbiting the Earth for seven or eight days before returning home.
The two candidates were picked after giving a one-minute live speech on television along with four other aspirants, followed by a question-and-answer session, with a panel of experts judging their responses.
This last of four screening processes was aimed at determining how well they appeal to the general public and would be able to act as ambassadors of South Korea's budding space program.
Ko and Yi were picked after the government tallied up their test scores and reviewed their professional qualifications, interviews and physical examinations. KARI said physical fitness, ability to respond to unforeseen situations, general aptitude for space flight and cooperation with foreign astronauts were chief considerations for the selection.
Following the announcement of the finalists, Ko said the main reason for sending a person to space is to help the country develop the aerospace sector.
"A manned flight can advance space development to the next level with the vast know-how that can be attained," the researcher said, adding that he will share the knowledge he acquires with others.
Yi said sending a Korean into space is different from reading about others' experiences, and if she has the opportunity to go into space she wants to give a fresh account of it and conduct tests in the fields of electromechanics and memory that she is studying.
"Regardless of who goes into space, the knowledge learned in the training process will be important and should be shared," she said.
Both said they would act as ambassadors for the country's space program and planned to continue their careers as researchers.
The Science Ministry said the two finalists will be sent to Russia's Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in March 2007, where they will be given in-depth training, including the carrying out of experiments in space.
Seoul, Dec. 25 (Yonhap News)
S. Korea selects two finalists to become country's first astronaut |
