The Most Famous
ASTRONAUTS from South Korea
This page contains a list of the greatest South Korean Astronauts. The pantheon dataset contains 524 Astronauts, 1 of which were born in South Korea. This makes South Korea the birth place of the 37th most number of Astronauts behind Georgia and Cameroon.
Top 1
The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary South Korean Astronauts of all time. This list of famous South Korean Astronauts is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.
1. Yi So-yeon (1978 - )
With an HPI of 43.46, Yi So-yeon is the most famous South Korean Astronaut. Her biography has been translated into 39 different languages on wikipedia.
Yi So-yeon (born June 2, 1978) is a South Korean astronaut and biotechnologist who became the first Korean to fly in space. Lee was born and raised in Gwangju, South Korea and graduated from KAIST with a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering. In 2006, she was selected as one of two finalists in the Korean Astronaut Program: a mission to send the first Koreans to space. A year later, it was announced that she was to be the backup. However, on March 10, 2008, it was announced that she would be the primary. On April 8, 2008, she was launched into space alongside two Russian cosmonauts. She spent around eleven days in space; on April 19, she returned to the surface. Afterwards, Yi worked as a researcher at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI). She then attended the International Space University before resigning from KARI to pursue an MBA at the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business. She then moved to Washington and lectured at Everett Community College and the University of Washington.
Pantheon has 1 people classified as astronauts born between 1978 and 1978. Of these 1, 1 (100.00%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living astronauts include Yi So-yeon.
