Korea¡¯s first astronaut Yi So-yeon arrived at the International Space Station at 12:40 a.m. on Friday. On arrival, Yi promised to do her best to carry out her missions. The Soyuz spacecraft carrying Yi docked at the ISS at 9:57 p.m. Thursday, and astronauts spent three hours to firmly secure the spacecraft to the ISS and stabilize atmospheric pressure before entering the space station.
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Yi So-yeon of Korea listens in the foreground to a call from mission control in Russia this image from NASA TV on Thursday. In the background (front row L-R) Flight Engineer Oleg Kononenko, Expedition 17 Commander Sergei Volkov; (back row L-R) Astronaut Garrett Reisman, Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson, Expedition 16 Flight Engineer Yuri Malenchenko. Yi will return to Earth April 19th with Expedition 16 crew members. /REUTERS
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Yi held a press conference after arriving at the ISS and also talked with her mother, who was waiting at the Mission Control Center in Moscow. ¡°I love you and dad,¡± she said. Her mother, Jeong Geum-soon, answered, ¡°I¡¯m proud of you. Take care of yourself and carry out your missions well.¡± On the first day at the ISS, Yi was given an orientation from senior astronauts and installed a device to start the space experiments assigned to her. The experiments include studies of the germination, growth and mutation of plants in space, the effects of micro-gravity on eye pressure, the effects of a space environment on the heart, and a study on gravitational effects on aging and genes.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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