The space tourist that Korea chose to pay the Russians $20 million to send up into space is being changed at the last minute:
With less than a month to go before its first astronaut travels into space, South Korea has made a last-minute change, selecting a woman instead of a man, the government said Monday.
The switch would make Yi So-yeon the second Asian woman to go into space, following Chiaki Mukai of Japan who made two trips into orbit in the 1990s.In a news briefing, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said it has decided to switch its primary astronaut candidate for the planned April 8 launch from Ko San to Yi following requests from Russian evaluators.
“The main reason for the change is based on two consecutive violations of training protocol by Ko,” said Lee Sang-mok, the head of the ministry’s space technology bureau. Ko mistakenly sent a mission training manual home along with his personal belongings last September, but it was sent back immediately.
Last month he acquired a spacecraft pilot’s instructions that he was not authorized to read. The South Korean astronaut is a mission specialist and is required to carry out various scientific experiments in space.
“Ko was aware of the rules and signed an agreement not to break them on entering the program,” Lee said. Controllers from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) had also warned him to be careful to abide by the rules, he added. The official speculated that an urge to study every aspect of the space program may have prompted Ko to study material that he was not authorized to read.
KARI president Paik Hong-yul said the Russians emphasized the importance of following rules because minor mistakes and disobedience could have serious consequences in space.
The scientist said that Russia sent a report on the infractions on Friday along with the result of medical tests and asked South Korea to make the “right decision” on this issue. [Yonhap]
I like how the Korean media just glossed over what Ko did. He just had a “urge to study” and “mistakenly” mailed mission training manuals home. How do you mistakenly mail home not one but two manuals? Ko I am willing to bet was committing industrial espionage for the Koreans.
With Ko gone he was replaced by the back up space tourist Yi So-yeon:
Many of you may remember Yi So-yeon from Michael Hurt’s interview with her which she seems to be quite a nice and bright person. Michael is obviously quite happy with the turn of events that is sending Yi So-yeon into space. Good for her and I hope she has a great trip.
Yonhap claims that Yi So-yeon will be the 2nd Asian female into space after the Japanese astronaut Chiaki Mukai. As usual though, Yonhap is incorrect because there has been other Asian women in space such as Indian born American Kalpana Chawla. There has even been another Asian female space tourist who went up with the Russians just like Yi So-yeon is going to. Iranian born American, Anousheh Ansari blasted off into space with the Russians back in 2006. Last time I checked India and Iran were both in Asia.
If anyone is wondering why I keep calling the Korean “astronaut” a space tourist you can read my prior posting on this here along with some great comments, but the bottom line is that this whole thing is nothing more then a Korean flag waving exercise. The Korean government did not want to invest in the time necessary to have Koreans compete for NASA slots which currently a number of foreigners hold with NASA to include seven Japanese and even a Brazilian.
Korea does not want to appear to be left behind by the Japanese and Chinese space programs and thus have paid the Russians to send their “astronaut” up to make it appear Korea is on par with the Japanese and the Chinese to protect their precious image. I guess the opportunity to commit a little industrial espionage was tempting as well. So when Yi So-yeon does go into space expect a lot of Korean flag waving and a minimizing of Russian involvement in sending the first Korean “astronaut” into space.
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4:27 am on March 11th, 2008 1
Many Koreans are beginning to shout out that Korea’s real enemy is not the Chinese or the Japanese, but they themselves. Koreans are destryoing themselves… there are just too many embarrassing news going on in that country… occuring every month it seems.
Regarding the comment about Yonhap listing the Korean female ‘tourist’ as the 2nd Asian ever, I believe that the writer meant 2nd East Asian (China, Japan, North/South Korea, Taiwan, south east asia etc) female astronaut. A lot of people still make the mistake of not including Indians/Iranians/Uzbeks etc as Asians because for them they seem to belong in middle east and/or western physica trait.
10:30 am on March 11th, 2008 2
I’ll bet Ko was “asked” by the NIS to send documents. He was sloppy.
2:04 pm on March 11th, 2008 3
Update on this news:
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.
3:45 pm on March 11th, 2008 4
This is space tourism plain and simple and not “space science research”. Why doesn’t Korea compete to have scientists go on shuttle missions with NASA like other nations do? There are plenty of intelligent people in the ROK but sending people to compete for NASA slots is not as instantaneous as simply paying off the Russians. Plus NASA is not going to send up a 29 year old as an astronaut.
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.
8:12 pm on March 11th, 2008 5
UPDATE: Russians also firmly stated that “Ko is NOT a spy, he just wanted to prepare more thoroughly”, and that Russians expect continual cooperative space program efforts between the two 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.
10:25 pm on March 11th, 2008 6
2:52 am on March 12th, 2008 7
The Russians are not going come out and directly say he is a spy because they want to keep the Korean cash coming in, so of course they are going to say he was “preparing more thoroughly”. You do not accidentally mail home flight manuals. You know how big and bulky those manuals are? The guy obviously knew what he was doing.
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.
7:16 am on March 12th, 2008 8
Sam, what GI said. The ROKs are paying $30 million that Russia wants/needs. They are not yet ready to bite the hand that funds part of their space program. Reading between the lines is easy if you know what to look for.
4:38 pm on March 12th, 2008 9
just $30mm? haha, if you look at it from a different angle, isn’t it nice the ROK govt is saving it’s citizens money by not spending it on a space program?
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?
6:43 pm on March 12th, 2008 10
Plain and simple
Her parents gave more money to the decision makers than His parents did. Not too difficult to see from here.
9:16 am on March 20th, 2008 11
7:41 pm on April 14th, 2008 12