|
|
|
(2nd LD) S. Korea's first astronaut lands safely after 12 days in space
MOSCOW/SEOUL, April 19 (Yonhap) -- South Korea's first astronaut, Yi So-yeon, has landed safety in Kazakhstan after spending 12 days in space, the Russian Federal Space Agency said Saturday.
The agency said that the Soyuz TMA-11, carrying Yi, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, made a dry-land crashdown 420 kilometers from the designated landing site.
"All three cosmonauts are healthy and in good condition," said Anatoly Perminov, the director of the Russian space agency.
He added that the area where the module landed was one of the candidate landing zones.
The exact time of the landing was not announced, but it may have been around 08:30 Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). The wide deviation from the originally planned landing zone also caused rescue helicopters to be delayed in reaching the module and confirming the safety of all three crew members.
The Soyuz TMA-11 started it return flight by undocking from the International Space Station (ISS) at 05:06 GMT and initiated its deorbit burn at 07:40 GMT to make its final descent for atmospheric reentry.
Authorities said that the three astronauts are being moved by helicopter to the Kustanaj airport near the Russian-Kazakhstan border, where they will be given a formal welcoming ceremony before boarding a plane for the Gagarin Space Center near Moscow.
Despite the minor complications related to the landing, Yi's trip to the ISS is significant for South Korea's space program.
By blasting off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 11:16 GMT on April 8, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) researcher made history by becoming the first South Korean to go into orbit.
During her stay in space, she was onboard the ISS for 10 days, and successfully conducted 18 experiments and numerous TV and radio interviews there to bolster national interest in space exploration.
She is the 49th woman to reach space and the 158th person to visit the space station that orbits 350 kilometers above Earth.
KARI, located in Daejeon, said the safe return of the 29-year-old bio systems engineer opens a new chapter for South Korea's space program, which got off to a late start.
The country is an economic powerhouse and a leading trading nation, but only became the 36th country in the world to send a person into space with Yi's mission.
Seoul said that it aims to become a top-seven space power within 10 years' time, and create the technology to build and launch its own indigenous rocket and satellite by 2020.
South Koreans, meanwhile, welcomed the safe return of Yi and said that her mission raises hopes for a brighter future in the country's science and technology sector.
Paik Kyung-hak, a faculty member of the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Yi'a alma mater, said he is proud that a graduate of the university was the first South Korean to reach orbit, and hopes that a time will come when others will be able to follow.
Others, like Kim Min-jung, who along with 36,206 other South Koreans volunteered for the astronaut selection process in 2006, said she had trouble sleeping while Yi was in space. She said that those who had volunteered plan to hold a welcoming ceremony for Yi and Ko San, the backup candidate, when they return to South Korea.
yonngong@yna.co.kr
(END)
|
| |
|
|
Home
