Tuesday, April 08, 2008

First Korean in Space

Since Mike hasn't blogged about it yet, I thought I would get the word out that his favourite astronaut Yi So-yeon blasted off from the Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan at 11:16 GMT.

I like the way the BBC comment how South Korea paid $20m for the mission.

Update at 12:15 AM:
CNN has the most detailed coverage and notes that she is also the youngest female astronaut.
Yonhap makes Korea the 36th Country to send an astronaut into space and KBS agrees with that count while Korea Times make it the 37th country.

Arirang mentions her plans to introduce her country's traditional food and beverages such as kimchi specially developed and packaged for space to the crew aboard the ISS.
The Joong Ang has not confirmed the launch yet.
The Korea Herald has the story, but it's not easy to give a direct links to the page.
The Chosun Ilbo just has her photo.
The Hankyoreh has a column from a Professor of Sogang University about the subject.
The Dong-A-Ilbo has an editorial proclaiming "Korea needs strong policies to catch up with space powers".

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I once worked as a consultant for a Korean film producer wanting to film in Scotland.

Of all the things he could have been worried about - weather, permission for filming, getting the crew and equipment there, grants - the thing that most concerned him was: How can I get Kimchi for my crew? Koreans need their Kimchi for work.

It made me laugh that the same dialema also faced the organisers of this space mission. I imagine the list of priorities was:
1. Kimchi
2. Allowing smoking in the toilets
3. Soju
4. DMB TV reception in the shuttle
5. Enabling MSN messenger so the So-yeong can chat when she is supposed to be working
;)

Anonymous said...

I saw this Dickipedia entry and thought of your blog!
"Kim Jong-il (born February 16, 1941, Vyatskoye, Soviet Union, or according to his “official” biography, February 16, 1942, Baekdu Mountain, Japanese Korea) is Chairman of the National Defense Commission, Supreme Commander of the Korean People’s Army, and General Secretary of the Worker’s Party of the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, a country known for its love of both absurdly long titles and absurdly short despots. He is both a totalitarian dictator and a total dick."
The rest is here, enjoy!
http://www.dickipedia.org/dick.php?title=Kim_Jong-il