Korean astronaut lands… somewhere

And so, the first Korean astronaut (as well a Russian and an American) landed safely over the weekend.  (I first blogged about it over here.)

Problem is, they landed a bit off course.  From Scientific American:

A Russian space capsule landed about 420 km (260 miles) off course in Kazakhstan on Saturday but South Korea’s first astronaut and the other two crew were safe.

The Soyuz capsule landed west of the target area and about 20 minutes past the scheduled time after it adopted a so-called “ballistic landing,” space officials said. Rescue helicopters rushed to the site.

“The capsule landed with an overshoot. Such things happen,” said mission control spokesman Valery Lyndin.

He said the crew had begun leaving the capsule, which carried Yi So-yeon, a 29-year old nanotechnology engineer from Seoul, U.S. commander Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko.

Korea in space

The International Space Station is truly an international undertaking. Astronauts from 15 countries have visited and spent time there, and Canadians have been stationed there more than any other country except Russia and the U.S.

Now Korea has entered the club. Take a look at this video of the Russian launch, and try to make note of how different from the American launched these are

First Korean woman in space

Here she is, Yi So-Yeon.

.

And Here’s the full story, courtesy of Space-Travel.com.

(h/t to Matt C.)