The next installment of the “Spacegirl” series – as some Korean folks around me like to affectionately call it – is served. To those of you who asked, I did my best to consolidate the subtitles into longer sentences, instead of breaking them into smaller chunks that keep you reading more than watching.
Soyeon changes a little bit from video to video, especially since she’s getting much more experience and perspective on the prospect of going into space, and as that prospect becomes more concrete and real. And she mentions the inevitable factor of politics affecting her position and what this means for her. The real juicy stuff we had to reserve for heated conversation over beer, lest she get in trouble and actually not end up going anywhere.
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But, wow – I think that girl is cut out to go to space, which is why I think I’d be rooting for her even if she weren’t already my friend. Soyeon is both mentally and physically fit for it, she has a vision of where she wants Korean space technology to be, and has been able to keep her feet on the ground even as her mind dreams of space.
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16 Comments
Continued good luck to her.
She might have been referring to some specific aspect of the Russian program not having accidents, but that just didn’t sound right. Overall that isn’t true at all. [link] [link] [link]
Thanks for the second videocast, Metro, although I could do without the screaming theme music.
Thanks for the links, Richardson. In the last link, that story about 100 + Soviet military and aerospace personnel getting fried after a rocket exploded and the Communist cover-up is a horrific reminder of why the Soviet Union no longer exists. The story describes the event as “worst accident in the history of the Soviet space program,” but it is really the worst accident in the history of space exploration and does not merit historical obscurity.
She’s gotta be kidding, right? She’s an astronaut, so she’s gotta have done a bit a research on the history of space travel. Would be very surprised that no one asked her about it or informed her of the dangers in all these interviews.
Be it picking up Eunhang Nuts in the bus lane, crossing flooded rivers, or space travel, bad things don’t happen to me. Koreans deny danger culturally.
Thanks for the links and the comments, everybody.
Before roasting Soyeon alive, though, remember that she had just returned from her training in Russia, whish is where she was getting her info from, after visiting the Soyuz Space Center. And as we can see from one of the links mentioned:
“The Soviet and now the Russian space program has not used great technology leaps like the US space program has done over the years. The space program rather resembles the cautious personality of Sergei Korolev who wanted definitely to explore space, but to do it safely. Because of safety, Korolev had his designs gradually evolve over time, always using a design which worked safely and building upon the success.”
I think that’s the prideful story over there at Soyuz. And as for the incidents mentioned, I can honestly say that, despite my solid general knowledge of the Soviet and American space programs – for example, I’ve remembered Yuri Gagarin’s name along with John Glenn’s since middle school – I didn’t know about the incident mentioned:
“On October 24, 1960 the Soviet Premier, Nikita S. Khrushchev was boiling mad. Two launches to Mars on the 13th and 15th of October had failed while he was preparing to make a big propaganda speech at the United Nations bragging once again about the superiority of the Communist system. His appointed lackey, Field Marshal Nedelin, was told to launch a vehicle to Mars, or else. When the countdown reached zero, the huge SS-6 rocket did not ignite. Feeling the pressure from Khrushchev, Nedelin disobeyed all safety regulations concerning rocket misfires and sent the technicians out to work on the rocket. Korolev was extremely safety conscious and he argued with Nedelin about sending the engineers out to accomplish maintenance on the unstable space vehicle. In an action of bravado, Nedelin took his entire staff and some chairs to sit by the rocket as it was being inspected by the technicians. Korolev and a deputy Yangel went into a blast shelter to have a cigarette when the rocket exploded. Instantly, Nedelin, his staff, their chairs, and over 100 technicians on the rocket were incinerated in the worst accident in the history of the Soviet space program. Rather than admitting that such an event occurred, the Soviet Press claimed that Nedelin was killed in an aircraft accident. About once every month after the accident, three or four space technicians would have their obituaries in the press; it took thirty months for all the Nedelin disaster technicians to be officially recognized as dead. Such was the secrecy of the Soviet space program in the early years. At the Tyuratam Rocket Launch Facility there is now an obelisk with the names of the scientists and technicians who perished in “The Nedelin Disaster.”
I had certainly never heard of that incident, and I doubt it’s talked about over at Soyuz, judging from the very history you guys were helpful in looking up.
I’m pretty sure that Soyeon is referring to the relatively public and prominent accidents that we’ve seen with manned missions, such as two really horrible space shuttle accidents and one embarrassingly botched Mars rover mission that happened because one engineer was metric while others were not.
I got the distinct feeling that Soyeon wasn’t talking in terms of wanting to compare the quality or merits of the Soviet and American space programs, but rather on someone who saw the rocket she very well might be strapped onto in the not-too-distant future and is going to be wanting to believe what her trainers at Soyuz say about the relative safety of their program, sort of like how a person who’s understandably about nervous about flying might very much want to believe in the “flying’s statistically safer than driving” argument, or how all airlines have rules against showing movies with plane crashes in them.
I, too, thought of Mir and radiation during the interview, but I didn’t get the feeling that’s what she was talking about, and I didn’t have any knowledge of any large (and for my brain, recent) incidents involving dead Russian cosmonauts to say, “Hmm, but what about…?”
At the same time, even if I had known about the covered-up, 100-dead-on-the-launchpad, Soviet-era story, I don’t think I would have been like, “What about the 100 scientists and engineers that were effectively killed by Kruschev?” I don’t know – I’m not 20/20, and I kind of think that in terms of talking about her personal safety (and unverbalized fear about going up on a Russian rocket), her claims about Russian safety (gleaned from her recent trip to Soyuz) is something she needs as part of her process of going up.
And in the bigger picture, she’s got a lot more to say about the meaning of such programs and the importance to Korea of doing that, and in the third interview, goes on about her respect for all the people who died in manned spaceflight in order to make the progress that has allowed someone like her – a civilian – to go up with such relative ease, so I think letting the evolution of these interviews (and her perspective on this) play out will be interesting for everyone.
She’s really thoughtful about this stuff, and the reason I wanted to make this a series is because she not only says so much useful stuff that I can’t bear to edit it into a single 10-minute shot, but that you see this evolution from giddiness about the prospect of going up, in which she talks about her schoolgirl dreams, to the present episode, where she’s a different kind of giddy after having come back from Soyuz, but now thinking about some of the politics of it, as well as dealing with netizen negativity.
I don’t want to steal my own thunder, but in the final episode, she is quite serious in comparison to the previous two, and filled with enough criticism of her handlers that I decided to cut out the juiciest, lest it get her in hot enough water to keep her earthbound.
So I can only say that I think of her belief in the safety of Russian manned spaceflight as coming from psyching herself up (with ample help from obvious cheerleading form Soyuz) to erase images of the flaming fireballs we’ve all seen on CNN and which was burned into my own brain when I was a child (and I’m sure hers), and that it’s precisely because she may be going up there that she’s not hunting around the Internet for the darker history of the Soviet space program.
But on the other hand, she talks specifically about the many who died before her in both space programs, so I don’t think she’s unaware of the dangers in exactly the way that those dangers are relavent to her, as well as the benefits that these people giving their lives gave to the world everywhere.
And just because I cut it out of the next one – with serious pain and a great deal of difficulty – she talks extensively about hanging out with the American crew at their facility at Soyuz, and how one even made her a risotto dinner. In her tone, I know she has a great reverence and envy for the Americans over there from NASA, but I think she’s trying hard not to let that turn into doubt of her position as a Korean being totally handled by the Russians. I definitely get the feeling that she’s happy they’re there, and the international crews give her a certain sense that everything’s going to be alright.
Again, those were my impressions, not her words. But just keep an open mind about, since the 3rd interview is even better.
And again, thanks for the comments. I’m sure she’s going to read them when she has a chance to breathe (I emailed her the Marmot’s Hole link last Friday), and she is very anal about reading stuff related to her, which is why she unfortunately read those comments about her appearance from some male Korean netizens.
So if she’s that thorough, she’ll get to all the links you mentioned above. I just think that in terms of spectacular space disaster, they keep things at Soyuz simple, which generally keeps them out of major trouble.
Thanks, everyone.
don’t blame her. She was fed some lies by the Russians with an explanation that fits the lie.
Aren’t the Russians the same people who lied about Chernobyl? And acted only when everyone else was saying something…
US is much more straight forward. When the Challenger blows up, you see it live. When the Columbia blows up, you see it live. The truth is told.
She mentioned how some netizens thought her face was “too big”, which shows yet again, the idiocy of the masses in this country.
Physiologically speaking, stockier and shorter individuals who have a little bit higher blood pressure, fare much better in zero-G environments (in pressurized G-suits too), than thinner and taller people with lower blood pressure. Of course, the tradeoff is that the person has to be physically fit enough in order to handle the added demands required by being subjected to G-forces as well as be able to fit into a confined cockpit space.
Nevetheless, ultra-thin, waifish, skinny and tall types will blackout more easily (even with a G-suit on), than someone who has a little more meat on their bones, which probably makes someone like Soyeon physically more suitable for being subjected to G-forces experienced by fighter pilots, astros, etc., and is probably why her other female rivals didn’t fare as well during zero-G tests.
I believe she’s a “cosmonaut”.
As her comment about how the Soviet/Russian space program is safer than NASA’s, I agree — give the girl a break! As metro and wjk noted, she just returned from Russia and was still probably under their spell what with all the propraganda flung at her.
Needless to say, with our access to English-language sites, anyone can find out that in terms of sheer number of space accidents, the U.S. and Soviet Union/Russia are on par with each other, the only difference being that the U.S. has had more deaths in space vehicles b/c the Shuttle holds more people than Soyuz.
Nevertheless, Soyeon seems to be right on about how Russia’s lack of “upgrades” in Soyuz over the past 30 years has created an extremely reliable system.
Obviously, though, this has less to do with any overt concerns for safety on Russia’s part than it has to do with a multitude of problems of a social, political, technological and financial nature that have plagued the Russian space program since its inception, which she perhaps forgot to mention — or was oblivious to.
And let’s not forget the Russian penchant for human ‘error’ and the previously mentioned cover-up. Russia’s historical tendency toward ineptness and incompetence has forced the average Russian to compensate with an above average amount of physical courage and superhuman bravery in order to overcome what would be considered in the West the most routine of problems.
“Not to worry, tavarisch. We never have accidents because we never upgrade.”
She’s just giving the party line, right?
All rationalizing and justifying aside, she deserves (and should demand) to know the truth of what she’s getting into. It’s far worse for her to go on believing a reassuring fantasy than it would be to learn the cold and sobering reality.
Of course she was fed bullshit by the Russian (and likely Korean) space program authorities. But that’s really not an excuse for being ignorant of reality, any more than a tourist fresh off a Pyongyang tour spouting about the wonderful, luxurious lives of average North Koreans would be excused for believing the propoganda they had been fed.
Right - she is a “cosmonaut.” O stand corrected on that one.
Also, just for the record, perhaps the subtitles don’t convey this enough, but she is using the grammar form for reported speech in a really long sentence, and in Korean, it’s very obvious that she’s reporting what THEY said to her at Soyuz, as opposed to her simply relaying all this as a set of “facts.”
I indicated this in the last part of the subbed sentence by saying “they said”, but it’s easy to miss. In Korean, it’s much more obvious. It could have been clearer if I had chosen to translate it as, “They said that…”
And the fact that she’s kinda taking the whole thing in a light-hearted tone should also make one hesitate before taking the whole thing too seriously, especially since this comes right after her talking about the smelly bathrooms and nothing having been upgraded since the days of Communism with a capital “C.”
So, if flames abeolutely HAVE to start, then at least pass some of them my way, since that could have been made clearer in the translation.
And again, before we start getting out the soapboxes, you should realize that she talks quite seriously and reverently in the 3rd episode about the many people who died in the past such that people like her can even have the opportunity to get into space so easily. And that’s after a lot more time and training. In the present video, she had just come back from zero-G fun, trying on her spacesuit in Russia, and most importantly, hadn’t yet been selected as a final candidate.
In the final episode, she’s appropriately much more sober.
Thanks, M/P. This is a fascinating series. I anxiously await the next episode.
So pointing out that an astro/cosmonaut appears not to understand the reality/truth behind the program she may be entrusting her life and career to is a flame from atop a soapbox?
Come on Michael, you’re better than that. Given her position and what she’s about to undertake, it is completely reasonable to question the things she said. I realize you’re completely biased because of your relationship with her, but writing off valid criticism as flames makes you look silly. No one is taking unfair potshots at her or pulling netizen bullshit. I personally know squat about anyone’s space program, but even I was aware of the disaster at Nedelin.
If she were Joe or Sally Kim on the street, no one would care what she said. But she’s not. She beat out 35,000 Joe and Sally Kims to get where she is, and she gets tremendous credit and admiration for that. But she doesn’t get a free pass. Expectations are high, and regardless of whether she was repeating what she was told, there was nothing in the interview to suggest that she didn’t believe what she was told.
With great power comes great responsibility. Or something.
I didn’t say anyone was flaming anyone. All I’m saying is that before we start assuming all kinds of stuff, writing theses and starting having potential arguments about how “responsible” or whatever people are as astro/cosmonauts, let’s remember she was fresh back from her trip to Russia, and hadn’t even been chosen yet.
All I’m saying. And I don’t think that makes me “biased” – as the interviewer, I was saying that she not only changed over time (the point of doing these interviews), she changed as more responsibility was placed upon her.
And she read the comments here today and wants to mention that she was really talking about recently, as in big space accidents, and that she was aware of mishaps, especially in the early years of the program.
And this becomes clear in the 3rd interview. As well as the quick letter she’s gonna write in and I’ll print up tonight from her.
Yes, with great power, great responsiblity, etc. And as she was given it, so did her knowledge grow. I just think it’s a wee unfair to have the expectations that we have for her now from a video purposely taken from well before she became “spacegirl.”
Know what I mean?
First of all, yes, she is repeating the party line she heard in Russia. We all agree on that. No need to argue.
Secondly, she never implied that she prefers to go up with a Russian mission as opposed to a NASA one. She has no choice in this matter. In fact, she acknowledges that the facility in Russia seems very dilapidated. Given the choice, I’m sure she’ll prefer to go with a NASA mission, if she had the choice. She never indicated that she actually believed that crap about the reliability of a system that has never been upgraded for over thirty years. I presume she believes it’ll be safe enough, since she’s willing to go up in one. But this is a calculated gamble, and I am certain she’ll be smart enough to recognize it as such.
By the way, I’m not sure if she’s either astronaut or cosmonaut. I don’t think she’s either. When a Russian cosmonaut joins a NASA mission and goes up in a NASA vehicle, he is still referred to as a cosmonaut. In other words, the astronaut/cosmonaut distinction depends only on the traditional nomenclature of the country of his or her origin. And since Korea doesn’t have a space program yet, and hasn’t decided what they call their space people, we can’t say she’s an astronaut or cosmonaut. (Well, if Korean government has already decided what to call her, I don’t know what they picked. Maybe space girl/space boy is the official terminology they picked.)
Ujunaut
Oooooooh.
“Uju-naut.”
I liiiiike it.
Ujunaut.
Oojoonaut.
Cool.