한국항공우주연구원

Launch Scheduled at 20:16, April 8, 2008 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan
Celebration Events Held on Seoul City Hall Outdoor Plaza

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, and the Korea Aerospace Research Institute announced that a Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft, carrying Korea’s first astronaut Yi So-yeon, will be launched from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Space Center at 8:16 p.m. Korea Time (5:16 p.m. local time) on April 8, 2008.

It will make Korea the 36th nation in the world sending a person into space, and Yi So-yeon, aboard the Soyuz as a spaceflight participant, the 49th woman reaching space.

In less than 10 minutes after launch, the Soyuz spacecraft will reach initial orbit of 24 km above Earth, after separating the first, second and third stage rockets in order, and deploying solar arrays. Yi, Korea’s first astronaut, and two Russian cosmonauts (Sergei Volkov, Oleg Kononenko) will arrive at the International Space Station (ISS) at 13:00 GMT (10:00 p.m. Korea Time) on April 10 after spending two days in the Soyuz.

Yi will stay for 10 days in the Russian Zvezda Module of the ISS. Her schedule during the visit to the ISS is very tight with scientific experiments, performances, and media interviews, leaving no time except for three meals a day and sleeping.

Among the scheduled tasks are; dinner in space, lecture in space, performances with the Korean national flag and emblem ceremony, two HAM communications, four live television broadcasts, and three radio interviews. From the very first day in the ISS, Yi will begin conducting scientific experiment in space. In total, 18 scientific experiments including ‘Observational experiment of plant germination, growth and mutation in space’, and ‘Study gravity response and aging gene in space by using drosophila‘ will be carried out in 10 days.

After completing the scheduled tasks, she will leave the ISS at 5:20 GMT (2:20 p.m. Korea Time) on April 19, aboard the Soyuz TMA-11 spacecraft along with two Expedition 16 crew members, to land on the Kazakh Steppe at 8:38 GMT (5:38 p.m. Korea Time).

Meanwhile, various events in support of the space flight of Korea’s first astronaut will be held across the country in the run-up to the launch on April 8. At the outdoor plaza in front of Seoul City Hall, about 5,000 citizens will celebrate this historic milestone from an hour before the launch. Also, Gwang Ju Science High-school, Yi’s alma mater, plans to hold events to show their strong support for her.