Her parents gave more money to the decision makers than His parents did. Not too difficult to see from here.

space exploration is of all things, not an economic venture. maybe in a few hundred years, but definitely not now. maybe it’s a good thing that korea isn’t spending billions of dollars on a space program?

The Korean media is not keeping this low key because they know the cover story is BS just like I do. A Samsung guy accidentally mailing manuals home does not make sense and even the Korean media realizes this.

I like how you avoided the question of why Korea does not send astronauts to compete for NASA slots like the Japanese and other countries.

http://news.media.daum.net/foreign/others/200803/11/yonhap/v20302306.html

GI Joe, you’ve also said: “The Russians will want to keep the complaint against Ko as low key as possible because they will be getting a cool $30 million from the Koreans for the mission.”

Then why is it that the Korean gov and the Korean media is not willing to keep this ‘LOW KEY’? Russians did not ask for the replacement, it was the Koreans who made the decision to replace Ko, knowing that people will question the reason behind it. Again, the Korean gov could have kept this as ‘LOW KEY’ as if nothing bad ever happened in the first place, but they didn’t. Why? Because Ko, the individual, had made minor mistakes of violating the regulations and the Korean officials chosed for responsible resolution to that violation.

Look at the number of Japanese astronauts that have served with NASA:

http://www11.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio_international.html

Are the Japanese smarter then Koreans? I don’t think so but the Japanese are more serious about having a space program and have academic institutions and training programs to support it.

Korea does not want to make the invest that a real commitment to a space program would take and instead wants to pay off the Russians. The Korean government is paying $30 million to have someone wave a flag in space and try space kimchi.

Also every Korean media site is saying the change was made at the request of the Russians. The Chosun Ilbo goes into great detail about how Ko was probably asked to conduct technology espionage and it isn’t the first time the Koreans tried industrial espionage of the Russian’s space program:

http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200803/200803110009.html

The Russians will want to keep the complaint against Ko as low key as possible because they will be getting a cool $30 million from the Koreans for the mission.

Russian Federal Space Agency made statement today that it was the Korean government who made the request to change the ‘tourist’ from Ko to So-Yeon. After the minor violation was informed to the Korean gov, the gov officials requested meeting with the program directors in Russia, and the Russians responded by saying that since two Koreans are involved with the same level of training, they will not object to the Koreans’ decision to change the astronaut.

This violation is labeled as ‘minor’ even by the Russians and other World medias such as BBC and the New York Times. Russians had no intention of asking Korean gov for the replacement, yet it was the Korean gov who responded seriously with the change. If Korean gov is using the program as a propaganda, than they could have just kept the Ko and hide the violation quietly to avoid criticism… but they did not. Why? Because this should not be mistaken as the ‘wave the Korean flag’ propaganda, it is their small but worthwhile first step toward space science research.