First Korean astronaut edges towards space station

SPACE TRAVEL

by Staff Writers
Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) April 9, 2008
South Korea's first astronaut closed in on the International Space Station (ISS) on Wednesday and was "preparing for docking," an official for Russia's Federal Space Centre said.

"They are gradually getting closer to the International Space Station. They will be docking tomorrow," said Oleg Urusov, spokesman for the space centre at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Yi So-Yeon and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off from the cosmodrome on Tuesday for a mission hailed by South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak as the start of the Asian economic giant's "march towards space."

Yi is set to fly back to Earth on April 19 after spending 12 days in space.

The Baikonur cosmodrome was built in Kazakhstan in the Soviet era and is now leased by Kazakh authorities to Russia. It is set in a vast plain dotted with debris from decades of space exploration.

Yi, mission commander Sergei Volkov and third crew member Oleg Kononenko lifted off from the same launch pad where Soviet legend Yury Gagarin, the first man in space, started his famous 1961 flight.

Yi has said she will celebrate April 12, the day of Gagarin's space flight, with fellow crew members on the ISS by sharing with them some of the South Korean specialities she has brought with her, such as noodles and pickles.

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Korean space launch inspires ethnic kin in Central Asia

Baikonur, Kazakhstan (AFP) April 8, 2008
As South Korea's first astronaut roars into space on Tuesday one group of overlooked fans will be staring up from this remote ex-Soviet territory with special enthusiasm: ethnic Koreans.

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