Russia To Take First South Korean To Space

STATION NEWS

Russia's Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center

by Staff Writers
Moscow (AFP) Dec 11, 2006
South Korea will send its first cosmonaut to space in 2008 to visit the International Space Station (ISS) under a contract signed here Thursday with the Russian space agency, officials said. "The first South Korean cosmonaut will leave for the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket in April 2008," Igor Panarin, a spokesman for the Russian agency, said.

The contract was signed by the head of the Russian agency, Anatoly Perminov, and the chief of South Korea's Aerospace Research Institute, Hong-Yul Paik.

Panarin said that eight South Korean finalists were initially selected from a field of 36,000 candidates for the flight and of those eight only six had passed the first level of testing and were still in contention for the trip.

"They are in Russia and the testing is continuing," Panarin said.

The South Korean cosmonaut will be scheduled to spend around 10 days aboard the ISS and a Russian space source told AFP that the South Korean government will pay "a sum comparable to the price paid by space tourists".

Of the four space tourists who have visited the ISS so far -- three Americans and one South African -- each has paid approximately 20 million dollars for the trip.

Source: Agence France-Presse

SPACE TRAVEL Which X-Treme Spacer Are You 'Orbital Outfitters' to Provide Space Suits For Next Generation Private Space Travelers Element 21 Golf Company Golf Shot In Space Generates Unprecedented Retailer Interest Columbus Control Center: Europe's First	MARSDAILY Spacecraft Fleet Zeroing In On Martian Water Reserves Opportunity Reaches Six-Mile Mark At Bottomless Bay NASA Images Suggest Water Still Flows In Brief Spurts On Mars Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Images Spirit Atop Columbia Hills
LAUNCH PAD Ariane 5 ECA Performs Perfectly As AMC-18 Launched From Kourou Europe Postpones Launch Of Planet-Detecting Spacecraft United Launch Alliance Begins Operations Terrasar-X Scheduled For Launch From Baikonur On 27 February	EARTH OBSERVATION Jason-1 Celebrates Five Years In Orbit - Ocean Data Continues To Flow Accurate Weather Service For 2008 Explore Planet Earth In Near-Real Time Purveyors Of The Cosmic 'Occult'
OUTER PLANETS Pluto Sighted For First Time By New Horizons From Four Billion Kilometers Away Making Old Horizons New Scientist Who Found Tenth Planet Discusses The Downgrading Of Pluto New Horizons Spacecraft Snaps Approach Image of the Giant Planet	STELLAR CHEMISTRY No Matter Their Size Black Holes 'Feed' In The Same Way Do Galaxies Follow Darwinian Evolution Negative Vibes From Space Asymmetric Ashes - Astronomers Study Shape of Stellar Candles
MOON DAILY Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Successfully Completes Critical Design Review Russia Plans Lunar Mission In 2012, Eyes US Lunar Return Partnership Moon Base Plan By NASA Holds Out Promise Of A New Frontier Foundation Joins Planetary Society Call For An International Lunar Decade	GPS NEWS China To Use Galileo Satellite Navigation System Russia In Talks With Other Countries On Joint Glonass Use Russia's Glonass System Should Cover Whole Country By Late 2007 Control Centre For Europe's Galileo Satellite Navigation System Established

The contents herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2005 - SpaceDaily. AFP and UPI Wire Stories are copyright Agence France-Presse and United Press International. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by SpaceDaily on any web page published or hosted by SpaceDaily. Privacy statement