韓國首位女宇航員：我將放歌太空

South Korea's first astronaut said Monday on the eve of her launch to the International Space Station (ISS) that she will celebrate arrival in space by singing for her fellow crew.

"We will have food on April 12 on the Day of Cosmonauts and I will sing but it's a secret what is the song," Yi So-Yeon, 29, said at a press conference at the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan where she is set to blast off on Tuesday.

Yi, who has listed singing as one of her hobbies, said her first reaction on reaching the ISS would be to cry out: "Wow!"

A South Korean space official said that Yi's 12-day mission would cost South Korea around 20 million dollars (12.8 million euros) and that he hoped the flight would help further his country's manned space flight ambitions.

An official committee gave official approval Monday for the mission by Yi and Russian cosmonauts Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko.

The three astronauts spoke to the press from behind a glass screen at the Hotel Cosmonaut in Baikonur as they are being held in quarantine for fear of being contaminated ahead of their space flight.

Russians celebrate Cosmonaut Day on April 12, the day Soviet hero Yury Gagarin became the first man in space, in 1961. Yi, Volkov and Kononenko will be blasting off from the same launch pad as Gagarin.

韓國首位女宇航員於本週一飛赴“國際空間站”之前說，她會爲同伴們唱歌，來慶祝他們抵達太空。

29歲的李素妍將於本週二（搭乘載人飛船）從哈薩克斯坦的拜科努爾人造衛星發射基地升空。她在奔赴太空前的新聞發佈會上說：“我們將在4月12日宇航員日那天吃東西，到時我會爲同伴們唱首歌，但歌名暫時保密。”

李素妍說唱歌是自己的一大愛好，她說她抵達國際空間站後的第一反應會是大叫一聲“哇喔”。

韓國一名航天官員說，李素妍此次12天的太空之旅將耗資2000萬美元（合1280萬歐元），並表示希望此行能進一步推動韓國載人航天事業的發展。

由李素妍和其他兩位俄羅斯宇航員謝爾蓋•沃爾科夫和奧列格•科諾年科組成的考察團於本週一獲得了一個官方委員會的正式批准。

當天的記者招待會在拜科努爾的宇航員賓館舉行，三位宇航員在一個玻璃屏幕後回答了記者的提問。爲了防止在太空飛行前被感染，目前他們正處於隔離狀態。

俄羅斯將4月12日定爲宇航員日，因爲在1961年的這一天，蘇聯航天英雄尤里•加加林成爲全世界進入太空的第一人。李素妍、沃爾科夫和科諾年科將從當年加加林升空的發射臺奔赴太空。