South Korea's first astronaut blasts off on space mission

Baikonur: A Russian capsule carrying two cosmonauts and Korea's first astronaut blasted off from the Baikonur cosmodrome Tuesday, en route to the international
space station.

The Soyuz TMA-12 craft lifted off on time, roaring into the evening skies over Kazakhstan's barren steppes before
turning down range and entering its preliminary orbit about
10 minutes later.

Yi So-yeon, a 29-year-old bioengineer, flashed a thumbs-up sign and told cheering Russian and Korean well-wishers she felt great as she was escorted from the Cosmonaut Hotel to a bus that drove her and her crew mates to the Baikonur launch facility.

Also on the Soyuz is commander Sergei Volkov and flight engineer Oleg Kononenko on board. It is the first space flight for all.

Yi is on track to become the first Korean to reach space, and has expressed hope that her historic journey will encourage the reunification of the divided Korean peninsula.

36,000 people applied for the job in a 2006 nationwide competition. Yi plans to conduct 18 scientific experiments during her nine days on the space station.

She is to return to Earth on April 19 along with two of the station's current occupants, American astronaut Peggy Whitson and flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko.