International Space Station (ISS) |
By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter
The spaceship carrying South Korea's first astronaut Yi So-yeon is cruising to the International Space Station (ISS) as planned.
The Korean space agency said in a release on Wednesday that she has spent her first night in space safely. Officials at the Russian space center also confirmed that the docking will take place today at around 10 p.m.
Yi, a 29-year-old female bio science researcher, blasted off from the Baikonur launch pad in Kazakhstan Tuesday night along with two Russian pilots Sergey Volkov and Oleg Kononenko. She is scheduled to fly back to earth on April 19 after spending 12 days in space.
``They are gradually getting closer to the International Space Station. They will be docking tomorrow,'' Oleg Urusov, spokesman for the space center, was quoted as saying by AFP on Wednesday.
According to Korean government officials at the Baikonur center, Yi said that she was feeling well Wednesday afternoon. She also said that the Soyuz spaceship is flying in between 300 and 350 kilometers above the earth.
The spaceship is rounding the earth every 90 minutes, while slowly raising its altitude close to the ISS. The crew are staying in the tight compartment of the spaceship for two days until the spaceship docks at the International Space Station at around 10 p.m., Thursday.
The docking process is expected to take about 30 minutes. But to open the hatch, the crew will have to wait three more hours so the air pressure inside the ISS and the Soyuz get even. Once entering the station at around 1 a.m., Yi is to have a live TV interview with reporters on the ground.
Yi has said she will celebrate April 12, the day of Yuri Gagarin's space flight, with fellow crew members on the ISS by sharing with them some of the South Korean space food she has brought with her.
Tuesday's successful launch made South Korea the 37th country to send a person into space and second to have a female astronaut from Asia.
indizio@koreatimes.co.kr
|
한국과 일본 국가부도위험 비슷해졌다
