Sep 5, 2007, 14:48 GMT
Seoul - A 30-year-old computer engineer is to be the first South Korean citizen launched into space.
Ko San was chosen as the country's first astronaut by the Science and Technology Ministry Wednesday for a mission that is to take him to the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz capsule in April.
Ko, who works for the Korean Aerospace Research Institute, is to fly with two Russian cosmonauts and spend seven to eight days at the station conducting scientific experiments, the ministry said.
He specializes in computer vision, the science of machines that 'see,' or obtain information from images.
He was one of two finalists and beat out Yi So Yeon, 29, a nanotechnology engineer also at the institute, after they went through a monthlong space training programme in South Korea and Russia. She is to complete the rest of the training with Ko so she could replace him if he is unable to participate in his mission early next year.
The two scientists were the finalists chosen among 36,000 applicants to be South Korea's first astronaut.
South Korea's government is investing more than 20 million dollars in Ko and Yi's training in an effort to improve its national scientific competitiveness and enter the hierarchy of the world's space powers.
'The astronaut programme is needed because it can provide vital know-how that can form the foundation of future development in this field,' Vice Science Minister Chung Yoon was quoted as saying by the national news agency Yonhap.
The country has a satellite launch centre on the island of Oenaro off its southern coast.
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