Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Entire South Korean Space Programme Shuts Down As Sole Astronaut Quits

Posted by samzenpus on from the take-this-job-and-launch-it dept.

An anonymous reader writes The entire South Korean space program has been forced to shut down after its only astronaut resigned for personal reasons. Yi So-yeon, 36, became the first Korean in space in 2008 after the engineer was chosen by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) to lead the country's $25m space project. Her resignation begs questions of KARI regarding whether she was the right person to lead the program and whether the huge cost of sending her into space was a waste of taxpayer's money.

4 of 186 comments (clear)

  1. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 5, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  2. "matter of national pride " by Dorianny · · Score: 3, Informative

    The whole trip was a "matter of national pride " and little more than a PR stunt in response to China's space program. She spent 11 days on the ISS on what amounts to space tourism, the average stay for real astronauts is 2-7 months. After returning to earth her job has been little more than to be paraded around and to give speeches.

  3. Not the first Korean in space... by rHBa · · Score: 3, Informative

    First Korean in space?!? One of these stories must be wrong then...

  4. Both were correct at the time of posting. by millisa · · Score: 4, Informative

    The old slashdot post about Ko San was correct at the time - Ko San was chosen over Yi So-Yeon to be the first South Korean astronaut and was still going at the time the first article on slashdot was posted. However, Ko San was accused of violating their security protocols and revealing secret information twice while training at the cosmonaut training center. This caused him to lose his spot on the Soyuz and Yi So-Yeon went up instead. Ko San left the astronaut program years ago, leaving Yi So-Yeon as the sole remaining trained astronaut.
    Ko San Bio, he is an interesting dude.