Yi So-yeon
- Soyuz TMA -11 TMA-12/Sojus (2008)
Yi So-yeon ( born June 2, 1978 in Gwangju, South Korea) is a South Korean spaceflight participant. The launch with Soyuz TMA -12 was on 8 April 2008, the landing on April 19. This makes it the first and only South Korean spaceflight participant.
Scientific training
Yi studied first at the Kwangju Science High School, and later at the University of KAIST in Daejeon. Your PhD in biotechnology Yi received on 29 February 2008 in absentia.
Spaceman activity
In spring 2006, the South Korean Ministry of Science and Technology announced that a South Korean astronaut should start with a Russian Soyuz spacecraft for a short stay aboard the International Space Station ( ISS). Yi was among the more than 36,000 applicants who came forward to this call. You passed all stages of the selection process and was presented on 25 December 2006, together with Ko San as South Korean astronaut aspirant to the public.
Early 2007, proceeded Yi and Ko in the Russian Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center for 15-month training as a Spaceflight Participant. When it was decided on 5 September 2007, which was supposed to fly to the ISS, the two candidates with Soyuz TMA -12, the choice fell on Ko San, with Yi as a substitute.
On 10 March 2008 but was officially announced that Co was withdrawn under pressure from the Russian authorities after he had violated twice against Russian regulations. This was Yi, had gone through the same training as Ko, the main occupation.
April 8, 2008 Yi launched on board the Russian spacecraft Soyuz TMA -12 to the ISS. On the ISS, they led during their eight -day stay by a total of 18 experiments. On April 19, she landed with the spacecraft Soyuz TMA -11 in Kazakhstan. Irregularities led to a ballistic flight of the Soyuz spacecraft and a landing over 400 km from the planned landing site.
Yi is so Chiaki Mukai after Japan and Anousheh Ansari from Iran / USA, the third Asian in space. South Korea is the second country after the United Kingdom, whose only spaceman is a woman.
Private
Yi is single and has no children.