By Cho Jin-seo
Staff Reporter


A 24-year-old university student won a promotional event of a U.S. firm and the chance of space trip next year.

If he takes the trip, he would be the first Korean in space.

Hur Jae-min, a senior in software engineering at the University of Ulsan, has received a reservation for a commercial space flight which will send him over 100 kilometers above earth sometime next year, if it is not delayed. Though the details of the flight are not fixed yet, Hur could be the first Korean to go into space as the South Korean government postponed its own Korean astronaut plan until 2008.


Hur Jae-min of the University of Ulsan poses in his astronaut costume during a press conference at the Westin Chosun Hotel in Seoul, Monday. /Yonhap

Hur will be shipped into space with two other award winners from the United States and Europe after four days of training in the United States, according to Oracle, computer software company that organized the event. The flight will be operated by Texas-based Space Adventures, a company which became famous after sending American millionaire Dennis Tito to the International Space Station (ISS) via a Russian rocket in 2001.

The cost of Hur’s space trip is only around $100,000 as he won’t go as far as Tito, according to Oracle Korea.

``I’ve even never been outside of South Korea. At first, I couldn’t believe that I am going into space,’’ said Hur during a press conference held at Seoul’s Westin Chosun Hotel on Monday. ``My family was worried about it because it sounds dangerous. But now, we believe that this can be a good experience in my life.’’

Hur was picked from among more than 8,000 applicants from Asia.

The government, however, played down Hur’s trip, saying he would become a space tourist, not an astronaut, and will have only a glimpse of the universe.

``We don’t think that the word `astronaut’ fits him because he will just go over the 100-kilometer line and come back,’’ Jang Bo-hyun, team manager of Korean Astronaut Project at the Ministry of Science and Technology. ``An astronaut is a person who has a mission in space, such as scientific experiments. Hur’s trip is made for commercial reasons. The first Korean astronauts, who will be sent by the government, will be working at the ISS which is about 350 kilometers above the earth.’’

There is no precise boundary of where the earth’s atmosphere ends and the space begins, but aeronautics’ governing body Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) says that any flight that goes higher than 100 kilometer is a space flight. According to this standard, a total of 442 people from 34 countries have gone into the space since Yuri Gagarin of the former Soviet Union flew in space in 1961.

There was a previous attempt to send Koreans to space in 2004, when an online shopping mall operator KT Mall selected two Koreans as the winners of their promotional tour. But the company never made contracts with Space Adventures or other space trip organizers because the idea of a space trip was uncertain at the time. The company said on Monday that it gave up the plan and will give the two winners some 100 million won each as compensation.

For Hur, Oracle Korea said that they will make sure the trip happens even though it could be delayed. The company also said it took four months for screening of the candidates, and about 70 percent of the Asian applicants were Korean.

indizio@koreatimes.co.kr