It’s not news that she’d be a woman in space. In being a woman in space, she’ll join a club that already has dozens of members. To be sure, women represent a minority of space-travellers, especially viewed historically, but they are not UNUSUAL (and thus newsworthy) space travellers, especially viewed in light of current practices. (and thus not unjustly inflating the number of men by including men who made suborbital flights in the 60s, for example, when the US used only male astronauts)

As a global society, we are far more egalitarian than we are spacefaring, and it’d probably be a bit more becoming if we could stop acting surprised every time we see a female headed to space. To reiterate, it’s actually NOT news these days. Thank goodness.

I’m sure she’d both cringe and laugh over the ‘hawt’ debate. What really matters is that she’s an incredibly smart and multi-talented girl, with a sparkling personality who came through a really tough and competitive selection process and has since completed an equally challenging training regime, conducted entirely in Russian, which she’s had to learn, as she’s gone along, in a country far from home, both geographically and culturally.

She also took on the additional challenge of completing her Ph.D remotely, while doing her cosmonaut training, and over coming all the difficulties of being far from her professors and colleagues, completed her thesis on schedule, and having her doctorate conferred as recently as 29th February.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of the Korean government spending millions on buying a seat to ISS and the value of the experiments to be conducted, they’ve chosen got a great candidate to make the flight and someone who will be a PR dream for science, engineering and as a role model for Korean women and girls.

She effectively finished her last training yesterday, and now is on a day by day sequence of final exams, tests and medical reviews, leading to departure to Baikonur on 26th March and launch on 8th April.

So, I wish the feisty, talented and courageous Dr Yi well for the difficult three weeks, which lie ahead, a smooth and uneventful launch, a successful visit to ISS, and pray for her safe return. I know she has the ‘right stuff’ and will do a great job for her country and herself.

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@StevoR, Csrster

“Are you sure you’re not thinking of Arthur C Clarke’s Islands in the Sky?”
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Pretty sure … Although that may have been another example. I think, from memory it was one of the “Lucky Starr” series but, hey, I guess I could be wrong.

Or more likely, that sort of case was described and used by both Asimov and Clarke and maybe others too.

But, primarily, she’s a Phd., and the best her country has to offer for this kind of pursuit. She’s going to make one hell of a role model for girls growing up in her country. (and around the world, for that matter.)

But, date her? Hummm… something tells me I’d be pretty well out of my leauge.

Are you sure you’re not thinking of Arthur C Clarke’s Islands in the Sky?

I have nothing against her, but as far as I understand, the whole thing basically boils down to this: Korean government spends $20M to buy a ticket for Russia’s space tourist program, and holds (more or less) a national lottery for the ticket. There is NOTHING made of Korean technology in sending her to space, except for some ridiculous “space-proof kimchi pack” I’ve heard about. To make this whole thing sound scientific, they’ve set up a list of ten experiments for Ms. Yi to conduct in space, and you know what? One of them is: “how much does your face swell when you are in space?”

…So that is Korea’s Big $2M-worth Space Science Question.

Argh.

She isn’t even the first Korean to enter space… actually some guy won another earlier lottery ticket to space, this time sponsored by Oracle Corporation (if I remember correctly). So she’s just that: the first government-sponsored Korean space tourist (and, I hope, the last).

Of course, whatever bad things we can say against lotteries is not the fault of lottery winners, so I wish her good luck, but truly, it strikes me as ridiculous and pointless to spend $20M for a reality show, in a country where the majority of astrophysics PhDs have trouble finding a decent job. (And that includes some of my close friends…)

- Yongjik Kim

That’s the first launch I’ve missed since the RTF launch. But I wasn’t gonna get up at 6am! ;o)

http://www.seoulglow.com/?p=12

http://www.seoulglow.com/?p=14

The third and the last part should be posted soon.

One thing that kind of makes me want to slap my forehead is the fact that the Korean government basically turned the whole thing into a reality TV show, starting with 36,000 applicants and going through several elimination rounds. It didn’t help that this took place during the last couple of years of a very unpopular administration. There were even some vocal accusations that the first Korean astronaut was going to be nothing more than a space tourist.

I felt that the deck was stacked against her from the beginning, since gender equality in Korea has a long way to go. I always thought that the authorities deliberately chose a man and a woman for the two finalists as a token gesture, and it was going to be a man no matter what happened. It looks like it kind of backfired on them. I hope nothing but the best for Yi So-Seon.

Those who are proclaiming her as “Hawt!!” might temper their assessment after checking her Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yi_So-yeon

Man I hate Pepsi. I guess NASA is using it in space for the same reason that they use dog’s milk in that episode of ‘Red Dwarf’:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhjGXCk-RVU

Yeah, that’s right too! I recall Asimov had an amputee astronaut leading a mission or spacebase (Moon? Mercury? Saturn?) in one of his SF novels – one of the “LuckyStarr” young adult ones perhaps!

Women, disabled, the elderly, etc .. space is very good for these groups -they should all be joining the push for O’Neil or Lunar colonies!

“If she’s training and going up with the Russians, doesn’t that technically make her a cosmonaut?”

I would’ve thought so too …

I forgot to add the word “still” in front of “I do wonder’ in my post above too. ;-(

& BA if the last line’s too risque for this feel free to just delete it & please spare the rest of my post – although Stephen Baxter’s superb novel ‘Titan’ discussed the concept a bit to some good humorous & sensual FXT…

———————–

Sheesh, I keep forgetting how hung-up over issues of .. ah, human biological imperatives .. you Yanks get!

Please learn from Denmark or the Netherlands y’all!
(The Puritan Pilgrim fathers have a lot to answer for!)

“Anyone know Sally Ride’s hair colour?”

which was silly of me… It really _doesn’t_ matter I know!

But provoked by comments here about first “red haired, etc ..”

I do wonder :

First blonde in space?
First Brunette?
First redhead?

& um .. sleeping in zero-gravity …

Way thing’s are going, she’ll prob’ly be Chinese! …

Anyone know Sally Ride’s hair colour?

There’s actually an argument that women will make better astronauts, physically smaller, tend to be better at interpersonal skills, there’ll be a likely need for good gardening skills and nurturing of the environment which women currently tend to be better at, etc ..

——————-

Incidentally, the space-shuttle ‘Endeavour’ has just lifted off successfully -a night launch!

All we need now is mecha suits with missiles, guns and giant swords for them to pilot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronaut#Age_milestones

Try this

http://www.jsc.nasa.gov/Bios/astrobio.html