Yi So-yeon: South Korea's first and only astronaut resigns

South Korea's first and only astronaut, Yi So-yeon, has resigned her position, effectively ending the country's space program.

The then 29-year-old bio-engineering student was one of 36,000 Koreans to apply for the position when the Korean government decided to create its own space agency, the Korea Aerospace Research Institute.

In 2008, So-yeon made history when she spent 11 days on the International Space Station, becoming the first Korean and 49th woman in space.

She was delivered to the space station via Russia's Soyuz spacecraft; Korea reportedly paid Russia $20 million for the trip.

Now 34 years old, So-yeon is pursuing an MBA degree at UC Berkley's Haas School of Business.

"California is an easy place to be an Asian woman engineer," she recently said of her experience at Haas.

"It feels like home," but studying business and being astronaut was apparently too much for So-yeon.

Officials at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute confirmed this week that So-yeon had mailed a letter informing the agency of her decision to resign her post, citing "personal reasons."

Daewoo Shipyard workers test out robot suits in South Korea

Credit: Daewoo

Industry leaders looking to see how automation and product ion will behave on the next levels will see two technology paths, robots offered as replacements for human labour and robotic technologies that will not replace humans but instead improve the ability of humans to perform their tasks.

A ship-building company in South Korea is interested in the latter path in the form of robotic suits that can support workers' tasks.

Their progress indicates how workers building the world's biggest ships could use exoskeletons to great advantage.

A report in New Scientist has been making the rounds this week about just such an idea that has been put to the test.

Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering (DSME) last year conducted the trial at a shipyard in Okpo-dong in South Korea.

The workers in wearable robotics carried large hunks of metal, pipes and other objects.

The suited-up workers were pleased that the exoskeleton allowed them to lift the heavy objects repeatedly without strain, but they also relayed feedback that they wanted to move faster and have the suits support heavier loads.

Gilwhoan Chu, lead engineer for the firm's research and development arm, and his team are working on improvements.

The goal is for the prototypes to turn into suits for regular use in the shipyard. New Scientist said among the challenges to be worked out now involve operating on sloping and slippery surfaces and tasks with twisting motions.

The exoskeleton fits anyone between 160 (about 5 feet 2) and 185 (6 feet) centimeters tall; it has a 28-kilogram frame (62 pounds) of carbon, aluminium alloy and steel but the suit supports itself, engineered to follow the wearer's movements.

A system of hydraulic joints and electric motors running up the outside of the legs, said New Scientist, links to a backpack, which powers and controls the rig.

It can lift objects with a mass of up to 30 kilograms (66 pounds) and has a three-hour battery life,

The world's top three shipbuilding firms are South Korean, Daewoo, Hyundai Heavy Industries and Samsung Heavy Industries, and their shipyards are already recognised for their level of automation, said New Scientist.

DSME, according to the company's site, operates its R&D center for product design, production technologies and other fundamental technologies related to shipbuilding and offshore construction.

Meteorite Shower: South Korea sees large meteor shower

A corner of South Korea is in the grip of a frenzied hunt for valuable space souvenirs, following a rare meteor shower there last week.

Hundreds of people have been scouring hills and rice paddies for meteorites near the southeastern city of Jinju after the shower on March 9, some of them armed with GPS devices and metal detectors, according to media reports.

A specimen of the NWA 869 chondrite (type L4-6), showing chondrules and metal flakes

"Media hype claiming that chondrites (a type of meteorite) could bring you a bonanza sparked the fever for space rocks," an official from the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea (CHAK) told reporters.

Local greenhouse owners have put up signs warning off trespassers after the first large chunk of rock, weighing around nine kilograms (20 pounds), was found in a greenhouse near Jinju.

A second piece weighing four kilograms was found by another local resident.

Scientists confirmed that both rocks, found in the two days after the meteor shower, had come from space.

A US meteorite-hunter has been handing out business cards in the local area, asking people to sell him any shards they find, the Korea JoongAng Daily said.

Chung Hong-Won

Prime Minister Chung Hong-Won suggested the government should secure them for research or as a natural monument.

The CHAK official said the agency would designate any meteorites found as cultural assets to stop them from being taken out of South Korea.

Ownership of the meteorites remains a legally grey area because of the lack of relevant provisions in South Korean civil law, the official added.

A space rock was last found on its soil in 1943, when the Korean peninsula was under Japan's colonial rule.

Meteor showers occur when hundreds of meteors, fragments of dust and rock that burn up as they pass through the Earth's atmosphere, light up the sky in a spectacular display.

Meteorites are meteors that do not burn up completely, surviving the fall to Earth.

Korean pensinsula: Seoul and DMZ from ISS

Korean pensinsula from ISS, captured by @astro_paolo. You can see very well Seoul and part of the DMZ.

Arirang 5 satellite in Daejon, South Korea

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute unveils the Arirang 5 satellite in Daejon, South Korea, ahead of its launch in Russia planned for mid-November.

The satellite, which is four metres high, 2.6 metres in diameter and 1.4 tons in weight, has been completed after six years of work with an investment of 240 billion won (about £140 million).

It will provide geographical images while orbiting the earth 15 times a day for five years at an altitude of 550 kilometres.

Picture: EPA/YONHAP NEWS AGENCY

NASA MODIS Image: Cloud vortices off Cheju Do, South Korea.

Cloud vortices are seen off Cheju Do, South Korea.

When air flows around an object such as a mountain or island, turbulence results.

In this image, captured on March 2, 2011, by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard the Terra satellite, the oval form of Mt. Halla can be seen presenting its broadest face perpendicular to the prevailing wind.

A single s-shaped cloud formation trails delicately off the leeward side of the mountain, and a von Karman vortex street decorates the clouds in a typical, paisley-like, pattern.

South Korea's Launch Failure - It's A Who Done It

South Korea's Launch Failure - It's A Who Done It

Last week, South Korea attempted a second launch of its new vehicle, the NARO-1. Unfortunately, this too failed to achieve orbit. To make a bad situation worse, the "blame game" has already started.

The Russians have apparently stated the explosion occurred in the Korean-made second stage, while the Koreans have indicated that this happened in the Russian-made first stage.

The reality of the situation is that no one yet knows what happened or why it happened. Every statement so far appears to be speculative and politically driven. This is not a good start to finding out what really went wrong.

Looking back into the long history of launch failures, one may expect the cause of this one to be the result of a combination of minor failures in the hardware, software, testing and management processes.

While it is true that a single hardware failure can cause a complete loss of the vehicle, a more common cause is a combination of things that were unforeseen, i. e., parts not performing as expected, management decision processes, software glitches, wiring mistakes, etc. One thing is almost certain, we will never be absolutely certain what actually occurred on NARO-1.

Debris are being collected and telemetry data are being reviewed. Every member of the vehicle development group and the launch team will likely be interviewed.

Experts will go over all of the available evidence. Panels will meet and discuss possible scenarios that fit the data and, in the final analysis one or more viable explanations will be presented.

Corrective measures will be recommended to avoid any of the possible failure scenarios identified. The results will be published in a NARO-1 Failure Analysis Report.

Assuming South Korea has the will to continue the development of its own launch vehicle, the next launch attempt will surely incorporate recommended fixes. Hopefully, these corrective actions will prove successful and South Korea will establish itself as a new spacefaring nation

NASA ISS Image: Typhoon Nabi, South Korea

South Korea: Typhoon Nabi is featured in this image photographed by an Expedition 11 crewmember on the International Space Station, as it swirls in the Pacific Ocean, heading toward southern Korea and Japan on 3 September 2005

Picture: NASA / REX FEATURES

South Korea delays space rocket launch

South Korea delays space rocket launch

South Korea Wednesday postponed a rocket launch designed to put a satellite into space due to problems with the rocket's fire extinguisher system, officials said.

The science and technology ministry said the process was suspended less than three hours before blast-off after engineers discovered a leak in one of three extinguisher nozzles.

The leak was not directly related to the Naro-1 rocket. But the launch, originally set for 5 pm at the Naro Space Center off the south coast, was called off, ministry spokesman Pyun Kyung-Bum said.

"There will be no blast-off today. A new date will be set when engineers complete their work to determine why the system was not working properly," Pyun said.

South Korea is trying to join an exclusive club currently numbering nine nations that have put a satellite into orbit using a domestically assembled rocket.

Its first attempt failed last August when fairings on the nose cone of the Naro-1 failed to open properly so that the satellite could be released into orbit.

South Korea has spent more than 500 billion won (400 million dollars) on the 140-ton Naro-1.

The main first stage of the liquid-fuel rocket was made in Russia, while the second stage of the rocket was built domestically, as was the satellite.

South Korea To Attempt Second Space Launch In 2010

South Korea will put together a plan to attempt the second firing of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), its first locally developed space rocket, local media on Monday quoted a report to President Lee Myung-bak as saying.

Initially described as a "half success" by local officials and engineers, KSLV-1 is currently under examination by the South Korean government to find the cause behind its failure to launch properly in its first attempt on Aug. 25, the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology said in the report.

The report also said its engineers are taking all possible measures to ascertain a successful second launch scheduled for the first half of 2010.

The two-stage rocket, also called Naro-1, is the country's first space vehicle to be launched from South Korean soil that could possibly place a 100 kg scientific satellite into Earth's orbit.

Following the successful launch of KSLV-1, developed in cooperation with Russia, South Korea will work on the construction of KSLV-2, a rocket developed without requiring any outside assistance, the report said.

KSLV-1 successfully launched itself from the Naro Space Center south of Seoul on Aug. 25, but the satellite failed to gain enough orbital velocity causing it to crash back to Earth shortly after take off.

South Korean Rocket Launch Fails to reach orbit

South Korea's first rocket launch failed to push a satellite into orbit but may still anger rival North Korea, coming just months after the communist nation's own launch drew international condemnation.

Vice Science Minister Kim Jung-hyun told reporters Wednesday that one of two covers for the satellite apparently failed to come off, making it drop back toward Earth. The satellite is thought to have burned up while re-entering the atmosphere, he said.

The failure Tuesday dealt a blow to Seoul's quest to become a regional space power. It comes against the complex backdrop of relations on the Korean peninsula — and recent signs that months of heightened tension over the North's nuclear program may be easing.

A South Korean newspaper reported Tuesday that North Korea has invited two U.S. envoys for the first nuclear negotiations between the two countries during President Barack Obama's administration, but Washington quickly said it has no immediate plans to send the envoys to Pyongyang.

North Korea gave no immediate reaction to the rocket launch but has said it would be "watching closely" to see if the U.S. and regional powers refer the matter to the U.N. Security Council. A launch by North Korea in April was suspected to be a disguised test of long-range missile technology and drew a U.N. rebuke.