South Korean astronaut makes history

Updated 07.38 Wed Apr 09 2008
Keywords: itn, nasa, engineer, shuttle, launch, space, space station, cosmonaut, Russian, south Korean, astronaut

South Korea's first astronaut has blasted off into space aboard a Russian spaceship.

Bio-engineer Yi So-yeon, 29, and her Russian counterparts Oleg Kononenko and Sergei Volkov embarked on their first ever space mission together on Russia's Soyuz rocket.

Nasa said Yi is the world's youngest-ever female astronaut

US space agency Nasa said Yi is the world's youngest-ever female astronaut.

The team lifted off from the world's oldest space launch pad in Kazakhstan, used by Russia's Yuri Gagarin when he became the first human in space in 1961.

Live footage broadcast from inside the capsule showed Yi smiling and waving and giving up the thumbs-up sign.

Thousands of South Koreans and their president Lee Myung-bak gathered in the country's capital to watch the momentous event via a live satellite link up.

Myung-bak told the crowd: "We're now opening a space age on this ground. I think Korea will be a great power in space, perhaps within ten years."

The South Korean government has a £10 million deal with Russia to co-sponsor the flight in exchange for Yi's trip to the International Space Station.

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

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