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S Korea celebrates its first astronaut to fly into space

As a Russian Soyuz spacecraft rose into the bright blue sunshine on Tuesday, spectators held their breaths, South Koreans celebrated their first astronaut and the astronaut’s mother fainted.

But the flight itself — launched from the same pad that sent Yuri Gagarin and Sputnik into space — seemed flawless. The spacecraft lifted off within seconds of its scheduled departure and delivered its crew into orbit about 10 minutes later.

Russia’s space scientists and engineers, who struggled for over a decade after the collapse of the Soviet Union, seem to have made the risky and dramatic business of sending people into orbit almost routine.

“Everything goes like Swiss watches” on Soyuz flights, said Christian Feichtinger, who has witnessed a number of launches at the Baikonur Cosmodrome as head of the European Space Agency’s Moscow office.

A zipper broke on Tuesday on the space suit of Sergei Volkov, 35, the commander of the Soyuz mission, but the suit passed a pressure test and he was cleared for flight.

The Soyuz spacecraft is scheduled to deliver Volkov, cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, 43, and Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old South Korean bioengineer, to the international space station today.

Despite the seeming routine, the sight of the 50m-high rocket arcing through the cloudless sky still stirred deep emotions.

Relatives, friends and colleagues stood in silence watching the huge vehicle rise as though weightless from the launch pad. The ground shook and the roar of the engines made conversation impossible nearly 2km away.

Moments later Yi’s mother, Jung Kum-suk, screamed and collapsed as Russian medics in orange jumpsuits rushed to her aid. Officials said later that she had recovered.

At about the same time, her daughter became the first Korean and the youngest woman ever to fly into space.

The launch triggered celebrations in South Korea, where thousands of people gathered near city hall in Seoul to watch on giant TV screens.

Live broadcasts showed Yi inside the capsule smiling and waving and giving the thumbs-up sign.

“The birth of the first South Korean astronaut is a joy to the people and will give a big hope to the growing generations,” South Korean President Lee Myung-bak told the crowd.

“My heart feels like bursting from joy at the rocket launch,” said Kim Hong-soon, 32.

South Korea paid Russia US$20 million for the launch and staged a 2006 competition that drew 36,000 applicants to become the country’s first astronaut.
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