The First Korean Austronout Woman

Yi So-yeon, the 2nd Asia woman and the first Korean to fly in space. She born 2 June 1978 (age 29) in Gwangju, South Korea. She has missions Suyuz TMA-12, Soyuz TMA-11.She studied at Gwanju Science High School and obtained her bachelor's and master's degrees and is now working as doctoral researcher in biotech system.

On 7 March 2008, she was promoted to train with the primary crew, and on 10 March the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced that Yi would replace Ko. This was after the Russian Federal Space Agency asked for a replacement because Ko violated regulations several times at a Russian training centre by removing sensitive reading materials and posting one back to Korea. On 8 April 2008, Yi was launched into space on board Soyuz TMA-12, with two Russian cosmonauts. She makes South Korea the third country to have a woman as its first space traveller.

During her mission, Yi So-yeon will carry out 18 science experiments for KARI, and will conduct live interviews and discussions with media from the International Space Station. In particular, she is taking with her 1,000 fruit flies in a special air-conditioned container box (Konkuk University experiment). She will monitor the way the changes in gravity and other environmental conditions will alter the behaviour of the flies, or their genome. Other experiments will involve the growth of plants in space, the study of the behaviour of her heart, and the effects of gravity change on the pressure in her eye and shape of her face. With a specially designed three-dimensional Samsung camera, Yi will take six shots of her face every day to see how it swells in the different gravity. She will also observe the Earth, and in particular the movement of dust storms from China to Korea.She will also measure the noise levels on board the ISS.

South Korean scientists created a special low-calorie and vitamin-rich version of kimchi for their first astronaut .