This Day, That Year – June 2

This day in history we feature Yi So-yeon. An astronaut and biotechnologist who became the first Korean to fly in space was born on this day in 1978.

Trivia – Yi So-yeon

Yi So-yeon was born to father Yi Gil-soo and mother Jeong Geum-soon, and raised in Gwangju, South Korea. Yi studied at Gwangju Science High School. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees with a focus on mechanics at KAIST in Daejeon. Her doctorate in biotech systems was conferred on February 29, 2008 in a ceremony at KAIST although she was unable to be present due to her training commitments in Russia. In 2010, she enrolled in the MBA program at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley. In 2015 she taught at Everett Community College in Washington State as an Engineering Physics Professor.

Related read – Astronaut trio touch back to Earth after half-a-year amid stars

Yi was one of the two finalists chosen on December 25, 2006 through the Korean Astronaut Program. On September 5, 2007, the Korean Ministry of Science and Technology selected Ko San as the primary astronaut, and Yi So-yeon as backup, following performance and other tests during their training in Russia. A change was made on March 7, 2008, when Yi was selected to train with the primary crew, and confirmed on March 10 the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that Yi would replace Ko. This was after the Russian Federal Space Agency asked for a replacement, because Ko violated regulations several times at a Russian training center by removing sensitive reading materials and mailing one back to Korea. On April 8, 2008, Yi was launched into space on board Soyuz TMA-12 with two Russian cosmonauts. South Korea is reported to have paid Russia $20 million for Yi’s space flight. She is the third woman, after Helen Sharman of the United Kingdom and Anousheh Ansari an Iranian American, to be the first national from their country in space. Upon return from her mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), Yi continued as a KARI researcher attending the International Space University before retiring from the agency to pursue an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. On August 13, 2014, the Korean Aerospace Research Institute announced that Yi had resigned for personal reasons, ending the South Korean space program. In the interview, she gave two reasons as to why she resigned from the program: first, she was preparing to marry a Korean-American man; second, she wanted to study for an MBA. After receiving her MBA at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business, Yi joined the Association of Spaceflight Professionals.

Source – Wikipedia