Rocket rolled out for Korean astronaut’s launch

BAIKONUR, Kazakhstan - The Soyuz rocket due to take South Korea’s first astronaut into space was rolled out of its hangar on Sunday as dawn broke over the steppes surrounding Russia’s Baikonur cosmodrome.
A locomotive dragged the 50-metre (160-foot) rocket bearing the South Korean and Russian flags to the same launch pad from which Soviet icon Yury Gagarin, the first man in space, blasted off on his historic mission in 1961.
Yi So-Yeon, 29, is to take off on Tuesday for her 12-day mission to the International Space Station along with Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko in a key step for South Korea’s nascent space programme.
A biosystems engineer, Yi is preparing to conduct a series of scientific experiments in space and has said she will be bringing with her Korean specialities, including the classic pickle dish kimchi.
She has also voiced hope that her flight could help reconcile the south and the north of the divided Korean peninsula, saying she would like people in North Korea to rejoice in her space mission.
South Korea is paying 27 million dollars (17 million euros) for her mission.
Russia built the Baikonur cosmodrome on the arid plains of Kazakhstan in Soviet times and has continued to use the site under a rental deal since Kazakhstan became independent after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.