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S Korea’s first astronaut docks with space station

South Korea’s first astronaut docked with the International Space Station (ISS) on Thursday, a Russian official said, in a landmark mission for the country’s space program.

“A successful docking has taken place,” Oleg Urusov, a spokesman for Russia’s Federal Space Center at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, from which the mission’s Soyuz spacecraft blasted off on Tuesday.

The mission’s Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft used its automatic docking system to link with the station, which was circling about 350km above the Earth.

South Korean scientist Yi So-yeon and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, all first-timers in space, were expected to enter the space station some two hours after the docking, officials said.

Volkov is the son of former Russian cosmonaut Alexander Volkov, who launched from the Soviet Union and returned only after the Soviet collapse of December 1991, the two forming the first father-and-son space dynasty.

A planned video link-up with mission control in Moscow will give Yi’s mother a first chance to speak to her daughter. In an emotional scene during the launch, Jung Kum-sun screamed and fell to the ground overcome with emotion.

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak hailed Yi’s mission on Tuesday as the start of a “march towards space” for his country, which will launch a satellite from its own space base later this year.

Officials from the Korean Aerospace Research Institute also said they hoped the launch would encourage more manned space missions by South Korea.

Yi was to return to Earth next Saturday after spending 12 days in space and has voiced hope that North Koreans will share in the “triumph” of her mission.

Asked on the eve of the launch what her reaction would be on reaching the ISS, an excited Yi predicted she’d cry out: “Like, wow!”

She also said she would hold a party for fellow crew members.

The party will take place on today, the day that Soviet legend Yury Gagarin became the first man in space in 1961, and Yi has promised she would sing for the crew, joking that she hoped they would like her singing.

The Soyuz rocket carrying Yi, Volkov and Kononenko blasted off from the arid Kazakh steppes into a clear blue sky from the same launch pad in Baikonur where Gagarin started his famous flight.

The Baikonur cosmodrome was built in Kazakhstan in the Soviet era and is now leased by Russia from the Kazakh authorities. The area is dotted with debris from decades of space exploration.
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