It’s done. Now you can see the much-promised, much-delayed, final interview with Soyeon. I think that when you watch it, you might be able to see why I held onto it for so long — one reason was that I thought it would be most relevant around the time she went up, and the other reason was because I didn’t want to help publicly pigeonhole her into being the backup astronaut well before the decision was made.
[Grr. Wordpress 2.5 is stripping out the embed code. I got it to post on my own Typepad site. Sorry!]
For a long time, the video seemed particularly fitting because she indeed became the backup; now that she’s sitting in the first chair, it’s even more interesting. Enjoy, Marmot’s Holers… I posted it here first. I haven’t even upped it to YouTube yet, and KBS is coming to my house to interview me and get the original DV files of the vids for broadcast in 40 minutes. But I wanted you guys to get it first. I’ll wax wordy and wise about all this on my own blog later.
Enjoy!
27 Comments
Well, this post is pointless without a link to the video in question.
Oh, okay. I understand. You want to give KBS the scoop. All right. Post it soon.
Grrrr… someone didn’t get a hug today!
#3,
Who? Me? I get several hugs per day. It’s one of the perks of being a daddy.
Does she actually talk anywhere about what she will be contributing to the mission other than just being a “payload specialist” and a “sexy astronaut”? Presumably she knows more about her role now then when she taped the film. In the film she makes it sound like the main objective of the trip is to “observe” the Russian space program. Presumably too much “observing” is what got Ko San into trouble and deserves the perjorative “tourism” label as much as an Apple day-trip to the PARC lab.
Finally watched it. She’s a very charming person, totally unpretentious. She seems to have a very good head on her shoulders. I can understand why she was picked as one of the finalists. She’s a good role model for kids who are interested in sciences.
Thanks for that sneak preview. I enjoyed it. She is not only smart, but seems like a fun person and, as mentioned above, totally unpretentious.
“She’s a very charming person, totally unpretentious.”
With the exception that she think’s
“God’s staring at her…”…
#8,
It’s just a figure of speech.
You don’t have to believe in ghosts to enjoy ghost stories.
#5 Eujin
“In the film she makes it sound like the main objective of the trip is to “observe” the Russian space program. ”
That’s the impression I got, too. Watching this after the Ko San “observation” shenanigans, I can see the REAL mission that the payload specialist had/has.
#9,
Well, I think the Russian are aware that South Korea is interested in creating its own space program. It’s inevitable that they would gain some new insight by participating in the Russian space program.
Is she planning to tell us what she will cook for all those ‘foreigners’ in space?
The embed code thing…
Switch the editing mode to code, and then paste the embed code, and publish while still in code mode. Should fix it.
nice work.
‘That’s the impression I got, too. Watching this after the Ko San “observation” shenanigans, I can see the REAL mission that the payload specialist had/has.’ expat seth gecko
it doesn’t take long for the expat to go into attack mode, does it?
if the expat can figure out korea is interested in russia’s space technology, don’t you think the russians can too? i’ll bet they figured they could make a good chunk of change by helping the koreans do what others too can help them do.
koreans want in on the space action, and that’s what they’re going to get. and once they can send a rocket into space, they send a missile to china.
let’s not forget south korea knows how to build a nuclear bomb.
you be sure to tell your chinese friends that, lankov.
#15,
You really are too predictable. That’s it, ignore #11 as being just the opinion of one person. Don’t tell me you didn’t read it, it was posted 10 hours before your comment.
So, South Korea knows how to build a nuclear bomb…Doesn’t everyone? If you look at the most basic atomic bomb you’re talking about 1930’s and 1940’s technology. It’s not cutting edge technology anymore. Heck, I bet nowadays anyone with a BSc in Physics could tell you how to make one. The reason it’s so expensive and difficult to make an atomic bomb for countries like North Korea and Syria is that they are trying to do it under the veil of secrecy and they aren’t simply content with producing a functional weapon, they want to produce a warhead for their ballistic missiles.
I can’t see the video, even on Metro’s site. Is it me?
I can’t even see Metro’s site…
South Korea knows how to build a nuclear bomb…..yeah, and so what? Knowing HOW to do it and actually BEING ABLE to do it are two totally different things. The technology is not that hard, a grad student at MIT did his thesis on how to build a simple nuclear device (this was back in the 80s). After he defended his research, the FBI confiscated all of his research, apparantly he got pretty close.
And if you really want to talk about “being able to do certain kinds of technology”, the US and the Soviets put people in space 50 years ago, China did it 5 years ago. So those who make the argument that the Chinese military will overtake the US in the near future need to see a doctor, because they have a brain cloud.
Well, nacho, I’m sure that if we could evacuate Australia, put the entire US armed forces in Sydney, the entire Chinese military in Perth, and tell them to go at it, the US would win. I’m no military expert, but I’m confident that in open-field combat with an identified enemy, the US just plain rocks.
But in terms of what militaries really have to do these days, what is it that you think makes the US so superior?
#11 and #15 Of course the Russians know that South Korea wants to build a space program. I’m just wondering what USD30 million buys you in terms of technology transfer, if indeed that is the amount the Koreans are ponying up for this trip, and what Soyeon’s role is in all of this.
Is Korea aiming to build a manned space program or are they just hoping for payload launching capabilities? If the former, then it’s pretty ambitious, especially in terms of cost, if the latter then one wonders why they need to send anyone up into space for it.
One of the aims of the mission is undoubtedly to promote science in Korea. Which is all good. USD30 million would fund a pretty good university science department for a few years. You could even set up a prize fund to rival the Nobel Prize for Physics. Something like the Templeton prize might be appropriate.
Anyway, good luck to her. Hopefully all goes well and she comes back safely to tell us all about it.
#16, I bet you a cheese sandwich I can find someone with a BSc in Physics who doesn’t know how to build a nuclear bomb.
Linkd,
Ok, well what do you mean by “do”? If you mean just the traditional idea of military combat, then I’m sorry I think technology-wise the US has the world beat, hands down. That is not to say that other countries out there do not have good militaries. The British, Germans, Russians, Australians, Canadians and even the French (stop laughing) all have outstanding, well-equiped (the Russians slightly less so in this case, but that is quickly changing) and well-trained militaries. The Chinese and the Indians also have very good militaries as well, as do the South Koreans and the Japanese (contrary to its “peace consitution, Japan has one of the most modern-militaries in the world). However, when it comes to technical superiority, the US has them beat, hands down. Gulf War I scared the hell out of the various militaries of the world, particularly the Chinese as they were already thinking of themselves as a soon-to-be superpower, in that they saw the US quite effectively using smart munitions, laser-guided munitions, stealth technology, advancements in armor, etc.
However, this is not to say that this technology is perfect, nothing is. The US still makes (quite a few) mistakes when it launches military operations. But the days of carpet bombing, at least for the US, are over. The Chinese have been increasing their defense spending every year for the last 15 years or so. Their military has grown in leaps and bounds, yet for all this improvement China still lacks the amphibious ability required to successfully invade Taiwan, which geographically is not that far off its shore.
Having military power and having power projection are two totally different things. China and India have military power, but no real power projection (yet). When it comes to power projection, the US is way ahead of the curve, although there are a few countries who also have this capability, but none to the extent of the US.
One last thing to keep in mind, advancement in technology still has not improved any country’s ability to fight a guerilla conflict, whether it be an urban or terrain guerilla conflict. Thus, the current quagmire that is Iraq. You win a guerilla conflict by either winning the hearts and minds, or through a policy of total attrition (which usually ends up turning into war crimes). The US tried attrition in Vietnam and lost. Whether the US tried total attrition is still being debated. So if it will be a traditional head-on military fight, I think the US and their technology is going to win 9 times out of 10. Guerilla conflict, that is a different story.
As for nation building, militaries do a terrible job of nation building, ex. Somalia, Iraq, etc. If this is what you mean by “what militaries actually have to do” then you are right, the US (as well as other militaries) sucks at this.
A couple of points: The US has the best fighting men on the planet and the best weapons. End of story.
Sexy space lady? I bet her parents had to tie a pork chop around her neck to get the family dog to play with her.
The theme song for Seoul Glow is completely annoying. Replace it with black-board nail gnashing and it would be an improvement.
That’s what I meant. Not that the US necessarily ’sucks’, cuz there are a lot of scales on which to measure success.
But, y’know, fighting a network enemy, penetrating secretive organizations, gaining trust of local populations, delivering aid, post-conflict rebuilding, destroying violent elements that hide within local populations, inevitable propaganda campaigns, gathering humint, supporting some local institutions and subverting others - that’s what militaries have to do.
All those cheesy hollywood movies like Firefox, and endless Discovey Channel specials, built around the worship of high-tech killing machines…that ain’t a big share real-world military action.
Better tell someone in the military to stop stockpiling cluster bombs then. I don’t think they got the memo.
So Soyeon’s up in space right now… I would think the blast-off yesterday would at least have merited a post here - I had to get the news from Wikipedia (where it made the front page).