The Korean Astronaut Program () was an initiative by the South Korean government to send the first Korean into space via the Russian space program. A ten day flight to the International Space Station (ISS) with astronaut Yi So-yeon occurred in 2008.
First astronaut class
On December 25, 2006, two candidates—one woman and one man—were selected by South Korea during a ceremony held at SBS television center in Dungchon-dong, Seoul. This choice was the result of a comprehensive selection process which started with the screening of 36,000 applications.
Ko San (36, male, unmarried, researcher at Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology) Yi So-yeon (34, female, unmarried, researcher at the KAIST)
Other finalists
The eight other finalists were: Park Ji-young (23, female, master's course student at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology) Yun Seok-oh (29, male, unmarried, official at Hanyang University) Lee Jin-young (36, male, married, squadron leader at Republic of Korea Air Force) Jang Joon-sung (25, male, unmarried, lieutenant at Bucheon Nambu Police Station) Ryu Jeong-won (33, male, married, chief technology officer at IT Magic Co.) Lee Han-gyu (33, male, unmarried, researcher at Samsung SDI) Choi Ah-jeong (24, female, unmarried, master's course student at Seoul National University) Kim Young-min (33, male, married, researcher at Korea Basic Science Institute)
First space mission
The winning pair was sent to Russia in early 2007 to undergo a 15-month training course at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center near Moscow.
On September 5, 2007, Ko San was named as the prime candidate, whilst Yi So-yeon served as his backup. However, on March 10, 2008 it was announced that the prime candidate would be changed to Yi So-yeon due to several violations of training protocol by Ko San. Ko San served as backup.
On April 8, 2008 Yi So-yeon took off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 11:16 GMT aboard Soyuz TMA-12. She spent ten days conducting scientific experiments aboard the International Space Station.
It cost South Korea approximately 26 billion won (US$28 million) to pay for the training and spaceflight.
Post-first mission
In 2014, Yi So-yeon resigned from the program to pursue an MBA, which was incompatible with continuing as an astronaut.