Russian spaceship blasts off with South Korean (First and Female) astronaut

[flashl]

Source: SMH

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying South Korea's first astronaut blasted off into space today, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz TMA-12 spaceship disappeared into a clear sky as planned at 5:16 pm (2116 AEST) after lifting off from the world's oldest space launch pad, used by Russia's Yuri Gagarin when he became the first human in space in 1961.

Yi So-Yeon, a 29-year-old nanotechnology engineer, began her journey to the International Space Station (ISS) alongside Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko.

Originally a reserve candidate, Yi was picked for the flight last month after Russia accused Ko San, the primary South Korean crew member, of removing sensitive documents from a training centre. Ko later apologised for his actions.

SMH

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/first-south-korean-astronaut-blasts-into-space/2008/04/08/1207420391329.html

[ConcernedCanuk]

1. Things we tend to forget - Russia put the first satellite in space, AND the first human.

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And Russia has kept the space-station supplied and operational while the USA flounders around with its Shuttle program.

Interesting read on Sputnik

http://history.nasa.gov/sputnik/

[flashl]

2. Yeah, like ...

Crew stranded in space safe back home

04 May 2003

Three astronauts stranded in space since the shuttle disaster in February have landed safely back on earth.

They were left on the International Space Station when the US stopped all missions involving shuttles following the Columbia disaster.

So they had to wait for a Russian mission to get the two US astronauts and one Russian cosmonaut back to earth.

...

It is the first time astronauts from Nasa have ever landed in a foreign spacecraft.

BBC

There seem to be an island of sanity in the space community.