First Korean astronaut to blast off into space

BAIKONUR (Kazakhstan)—South Korea’s first astronaut Yi So-Yeon was in buoyant mood as she prepared to blast off to the International Space Station on Tuesday in what her Asian state says is a historic step. Asked how she felt as she left the Cosmonaut Hotel at Baikonur cosmodrome on a bus to the launch pad, the 29-year-old flashed a smile and made a victory sign, crying out to reporters: “Great!” Before the launch aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket she said she hoped North Koreans would also share in her “triumph” and that she could encourage reconciliation between the divided halves of the Korean peninsula. Yi and two Russian cosmonauts were to take off at 1116 GMT from the same launch pad where Yury Gagarin, the first human in space, began his famous flight in 1961. Among relatives in attendance was Alexander Volkov, father of the mission’s commander, Sergei Volkov, and himself a former cosmonaut, who blasted off from the Soviet Union and returned to Earth after the Soviet Union’s December 1991 collapse. “It’s been difficult for me as a father. I know what he’s going to face and I know how tough it is.... I’m worried of course but I’m very proud that my son has chosen to be a cosmonaut,” Alexander Volkov said. The third crew member, Oleg Kononenko, is like the other two a first-timer in space. The Baikonur cosmodrome was built in Kazakhstan in the Soviet era and is now leased by Kazakh authorities to Russia. It is set in arid steppe and dotted with debris from decades of space exploration. After docking with the International Space Station, Yi has said she will celebrate the anniversary of Gagarin’s launch on April 12 with a spicy Korean feast and a surprise song for fellow crew members.—Agencies