SEOUL (Reuters) - The man intended to be the first South Korean in space has been grounded for violating security protocol and will be replaced by a female biotechnology engineer, the science ministry said on Monday.
Ko San, 31, was dropped from the top pick for the April 2008 flight on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft and is now the backup for the mission after he removed sensitive training material from a Russian centre, the ministry said.
“The Russians emphasized the importance of abiding by the rules, as even small mistakes can bring about grave consequences in space,” an official told a news conference, adding Ko appeared to have made innocent mistakes.
Ko, a technology researcher and a bronze medal winner in a 2004 national amateur boxing contest, is being replaced by Yi So-yeon, 29, who is finishing her doctorate.
Yi will serve as a payload specialist with two Russian cosmonauts for a seven or eight day mission to the International Space Station, the ministry said.
The two were selected from a list of more than 36,000 candidates.
Reporting by Jon Herskovitz and Lee Jiyeon; Editing by Keiron Henderson and Alex Richardson
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