SPACE.com -- South Korea's First Astronaut Leaves Hospital

South Korea's first astronaut So-yeon Yi is shown with packages of her country's space food inside the Russian segment of the International Space Station in this image released by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Credit: Korea Aerospace Research Institute.

Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko, left, American astronaut Peggy Whitson, centre and South Korea's first astronaut Yi So-yeon pose after news conference in Star City, outside Moscow, Monday, April 21, 2008. A Russian space capsule touched down in Kazakhstan on Saturday after hurtling through Earth's atmosphere in a steeper-than-normal descent, subjecting the three-nation-crew to severe G-forces and landing hundreds of kilometers (miles) off target. Credit: AP Photo/Misha Japaridze.

South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon, a member of the new crew of the next manned mission to the International Space Station looks on at the mock-up of a Soyuz TMA space craft before a pre-fight examination at the Russian Space Training Center in Star City outside Moscow, Tuesday, March 18, 2008. Credit: AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel.

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	South Korea's First Astronaut Leaves Hospital By The Associated Press posted: 14 May 2008 10:38 am ET

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - A science official says South Korea's first astronaut has left a hospital after recovering from neck and back pain apparently caused by her Russian spacecraft's unexpectedly steep descent to Earth last month.

Science Ministry official Jung Kyung-taek said Yi So-yeon was released Wednesday from a military-run hospital because her pains have almost stopped. She was hospitalized April 29.

Yi's capsule missed its target by about 260 miles due to an apparent technical glitch when it landed on a barren Kazakhstan steppe on April 19.

The 29-year-old Yi is a bioengineer at the state-run Korea Aerospace Research Institute.

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