New space station crew poised for launch

A born cosmonaut
Unlike his commander, Kononenko has no family ties with Russia's cosmonaut corps, but he did get hooked on spaceflight early.

"It seems to me that I was born thinking that I must become a cosmonaut," Kononenko, 43, said in a NASA interview. "As far back as I can remember myself, I always wanted to become a cosmonaut."

Born in Chardzhow, Turkmenistan, Kononenko is married to wife Tatiana and has 4 1/2-year-old twins, Alisa and Andrey. He joined Russian Space Agency's Central Specialized Design Bureau as a mechanical engineer in 1988, worked his way up to a lead design engineer position and was selected for cosmonaut training in 1996.

Kononenko said he is looking forward to the frenetic pace of traffic at the space station during Expedition 17, which includes a brief Soyuz flight to swap docking ports, the arrival of several cargo ships, a NASA shuttle and Japanese laboratory, and the departure of Europe's cargo ship Jules Verne.

"I think what I am looking forward to the most is acquiring that experience that will make part of all the real cosmonauts," he said in an interview, adding that it's time to put his rigorous training into practice. "I'm looking forward to my next flight after this, and perhaps even to future missions to the moon and on to Mars."

South Korea's first in space
Originally selected as South Korea's backup astronaut, Yi moved to the prime crew last month when Russia pulled her crewmate San Ko, 31, from flight status due to reading rule violations. Ko, an artificial intelligence expert, is now serving as her backup, Russian spaceflight officials have said.

Mikhail Metzel / AP South Korean astronaut Yi So-yeon, a member of the new crew of the next manned mission to the international space station, looks on at the mock-up of a Soyuz TMA space craft before a pre-fight examination at the Russian Space Training Center in Star City outside Moscow.

According to press reports, Yi, 29, hails from Kwangju and is a mechanical engineer by training, with bachelor's and master's degrees in the field, as well as a Ph.D. in bioengineering from the state-run Korea Advanced Institute for Science and Technology. She and Ko joined the Korea Aerospace Research Institute once they were selected from a field of 36,000 applicants to become their nation's first astronaut.

Yi's 10-day spaceflight stems from a reported $25 million deal between South Korea and Russia. She is expected to perform 14 experiments aboard the space station that include cell and crystal growth studies, as well as educational events.

In a March 19 press briefing with reporters in Star City, Russia, Yi reportedly said that she had more than pure science in store for her crewmates aboard the ISS. She will also take traditional Korean food for the station astronauts and may even sing, The Associated Press reported.

Russia's Interfax News Agency reported that Yi said she also hoped to promote interest in science among her nation's youth, as well as help ease long-standing tensions between North and South Korea.

"As a citizen of my country, as the first Korean astronaut, I will promote the development of relations between our two countries, if anything depends on me," Interfax quoted Yi as saying.

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