[Korea.net News, Science / Tech, February 4 2008] Seoul to send equipment into space before astronaut

Korea will send into space this week a domestically manufactured electrocardiograph (ECG) machine that will be used by the country’s first astronaut, who will travel into orbit in April, an Air Force official said Monday (Feb. 4).

The ECG, along with other medical equipment such as a tonometer used to measure eye pressure, will be sent into space Tuesday (Feb. 5) aboard a Russian spaceship, Progress, according to Col. Jung Gi-young, head of the Air Force’s space and air medical center.

The Russian cargo spacecraft, to be launched at 10:02 p.m. (Seoul time) from Kazakhstan’s Baikonur Space Center, is to travel to the International Space Station, where Korea’s first astronaut Ko San will stay for 10 days after being sent into orbit on April 8.