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(LEAD) Korean astronaut set to return to earth
By Lee Joon-seung
SEOUL, April 18 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's first astronaut is poised to return to earth Saturday after successfully completing her eight-day mission on an orbiting space station, the government said Friday.
Yi So-yeon is scheduled to board the Soyuz TMA-11 module and make a dry-land crashdown in a Kazakhstan field at 08:30 (GMT) on Saturday, the Ministry for Education, Science and Technology said.
The 29-year-old bio-systems engineer will return with Yuri Malenchenko, the commander of the spacecraft, and American astronaut Peggy Whitson, who have been on the space station since October 2007.
Yi, who blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome at 11:16 (GMT) on April 8 made history by becoming the first South Korean to reach orbit. She transferred over to the International Space Station (ISS) two days later and conducted 18 experiments and numerous TV and radio interviews designed to bolster national interest in space exploration.
She is the 49th woman to reach space and the 158th person to visit the ISS, orbiting 350 kilometers from earth.
The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), which is in charge of the country's space program, said Yi will bring back important scientific data such as the effects of low gravity on the eyes and the swelling of the body, various weather phenomena observed using locally built equipment like the micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) telescope, and noise levels on the space station.
MEMS is designed to capture for the first time detailed images of mega-lightning that shoots upward into space. The phenomenon, first discovered by pilots during World War Two, has remained a scientific mystery.
Noise level data is important because it can help engineers make quieter living quarters for astronauts in the future.
KARI, meanwhile said Korea's first astronaut and the rest of the crew will board the Soyuz spacecraft at 02:00 (GMT), with docking clamps disengaging three hours later after all systems checks are completed for the trip home.
The state-run agency said the module will push away from the space station and after reaching a distance of 20 meters ignite thruster rockets to set course for earth.
As Soyuz reaches its "reentry window" for the final descent, astronauts will jettison both the orbital and service modules that will burn up in reentry. The reentry module with its heat shield will fall 828 kilometers per hour towards earth.
Once the module reaches an altitude of 10.5 kilometers, large parachutes will be deployed that will reduce the speed of descent to 26 kilometers per hour, with retro-rockets being fired just 80 centimeters from the ground to further reduce impact speed to about 5.4 kilometers per hour.
After the Soyuz lands, it will be greeted by medical personnel with the crew moved to a medical facility at the Gagarin Space Center in Russia, where they will remain for a weak for monitoring.
Yi is expected to return to South Korea later in the month.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
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