spacetoday.net: South Korea changes astronaut for April mission

Posted: Mon, Mar 10, 2008, 1:23 PM ET (1723 GMT)
South Korean officials have replaced the man who was scheduled to be the first Korean in space with his alternate after he broke rules during training. Ko San, a 31-year-old technology researcher, was selected in September to fly to the ISS on a Soyuz taxi flight to the ISS next month. However, South Korea's Ministry of Education, Science and Technology replaced him Monday after Russian officials cited two rules violations by Ko: he shipped a training manual back home and also reviewed a manual containing information that he was not authorized to see. Ko will be replaced by his alternate, Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old biotechnology researcher. The two were named finalists in late 2006 out of 36,000 who participated in a national competition; Yi trained in parallel with Ko after Ko was named to the flight in September. Yi will become only the second Asian woman to fly in space.