SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -
South Korea said Monday a female engineer would become the country's first
person in space by going aboard a Russian spacecraft, after Moscow rejected
Seoul's first choice because he violated reading rules during training.
The Ministry of Education,
Science and Technology said at a news conference that Yi So-yeon will replace
Ko San as the country's choice to fly
on a Russian Soyuz capsule to the International Space Station in early
April.
South Korea originally
named Ko as its candidate in September, but Russia's Federal Space Agency
asked for a replacement last month because he violated regulations at a Russian
space training center where the two South Koreans have been training, said Lee
Sang-mok, a senior ministry official.
The Russian authorities
said Ko took a book out of the center without permission and sent it to his
home in South Korea in September, Lee said. Ko later returned the book,
explaining he accidently sent it home together with other personal belongings,
Lee added.
In February, Ko again
violated a regulation by getting a book from the center through a Russian
colleague - material he was not supposed to read, Lee said. Officials did not
give details about the book's contents, but South Korean officials portrayed
both of his infractions as minor.
"The Russian space agency
has stressed that a minor mistake and disobedience can cause serious
consequences," Lee told reporters.
Ko will remain at the
Russian space center and train with Lee, the ministry official said.
Yi, 29, will work aboard
the International Space Station for about 10 days with five other cosmonauts
including one
female American astronaut, conducting scientific experiments, according to
a ministry statement. The mission will make South Korea the world's 35th
country and Asia's sixth to send an astronaut into space.
Yi, currently employed by
the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, earned both bachelor's and master's
degrees in mechanical engineering at the state-run Korea Advanced Institute of
Science and Technology, according to the ministry statement. In February, she
received her Ph.D. in a bioengineering from the same school.
"The honor to become South
Korea's first astronaut will belong to a woman, when and if Yi eventually goes
aboard the Soyuz capsule," Lee said.
A total of 48 women from
the United States, Russia and four other countries have so far gone into space,
the ministry statement said.
South Korea plans to
complete its first space center by the end of next year as part of a program to
lay the technological and scientific groundwork for space exploration in coming
decades.
Since 1992 South Korea has
had 11 satellites launched, mostly for space and ocean observation and
communications.
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