South Korea's First Astronaut Hopes to Bring Koreas Closer

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan (AP) - The woman slated to become South Korea's first astronaut said Monday she hopes her time in space will encourage closer ties between the divided Koreas.

?I hope someday they will be one, and I hope the North Korean people will be happy with my flight,'' said Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old bioengineering student.

?I'm a daughter of North Korea and a daughter of South Korea. I hope the people of Korea believe that,'' she said, one day before her scheduled blastoff from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the remote scrubland of western Kazakhstan.

Yi will be joined in her two-day journey to the International Space Station by flight engineer Oleg Kononenko, 43, and Sergei Volkov, 34, the pilot of the spacecraft and son of a decorated Soviet cosmonaut. He will be the first second-generation space traveler.

Appearing before reporters in their last public appearance before the mission, the crew appeared calm but haggard as they approached the end of their rigorous training period, and they offered some final words of wisdom for children worldwide - never abandon your dreams.

The South Korean government has a US$20 million (euro13 million) deal with Russia for the flight. Yi was among 36,000 applicants for the job in a 2006 nationwide competition.

She was originally chosen as a backup to Ko San, an expert in artificial intelligence, and was not expected to fly. But Ko was replaced by Yi after Russian officials accused him of the unauthorized removal of technical manuals from the Star City cosmonaut training center near Moscow.

Ko, who has apologized and remains a backup member of the crew, praised Yi and shrugged off his disappointment at losing his seat on the flight.

?I am happy,'' he told reporters at the cosmonaut preparation center here. The center serves as the cosmonauts' hotel as they prepare for space flights.

Yi has drawn intense attention from the South Korean and Russian media. About 50 journalists from the Korean SBS network are in Baikonur to cover the flight.

Asked by reporters what she would do first in space, she said: ?At first I cry 'Wow.'"

She said she plans to carry photographs of her family and Ko with her, and to serenade her fellow astronauts on Wednesday - Cosmonauts' Day - with a song that, she said, will remain secret until then.

Sim Eunsup, director of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute's Space Applications Center, told reporters he was satisfied with the Russian space program. He also said South Korea has no plans to send additional astronauts into space.

?But in my personal opinion, I hope that Korea invests in the astronaut program," he said.

Volkov and his father, Alexander Volkov, have said little publicly about the distinction of being the first father-son cosmonaut team. Sergei Volkov said earlier this month that if his own son wanted to become a cosmonaut he would have serious discussions with him about the decision.

The elder Volkov appeared at the rollout of the rocket to the launch site Sunday to check preparations. The veteran cosmonaut logged up 391 days in space on three separate space missions in the 1980s and early 1990s.

On his last journey, he left Earth as a Soviet citizen and returned as a citizen of the new Russian Federation, following the breakup of the Soviet Union.

The Soyuz was expected to dock with the station on Thursday, and Volkov and Kononenko are both scheduled to spend six months as part of the orbiting station's crew. Astronaut Garrett Reisman, who arrived last month on the U.S. space shuttle Endeavor, is currently on board the station.

Yi is to return to Earth on April 19 along with two of the station's current occupants, U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko.

NASA will broadcast the launch of Expedition 17 toward the ISS live on NASA TV beginning at 6:15 a.m. EDT (1015 GMT). Click here for SPACE.com's NASA TV feed and live ISS mission updates.

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