Selecting an astronaut in Korea

[mithridates]

This marathon was on the front page of the Jungang Ilbo here in Korea today, and since it's pretty preliminary I assume that a lot of people missed it here. I can't participate because I'm not Korean, and even if I was my feet are too big (31 cm, max allowed is 29.5 or so). Pity.<br /><br />Just in case this screws up the page formatting I'm going to break the url into two lines.<br />http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/<br />200609/kt2006090317362253460.htm<br /><br />Astronaut Program Needs Boosting<br />Running Tests Attract Only One-Third of 10,000 Applicants <br /> <br /><br />By Kim Tae-gyu<br />Staff Reporter<br /><br /><br /><br />Astronaut hopefuls start a 3.5-kilometer run in a physical test at the waterside of Namdaechon in Kangnung, Kangwon Province, one of six venues fo the run, Saturday. The starting line also served as the finishing point. <br /><br />The Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) Saturday held physical tests to shortlist applicants, who want to be the country's first to travel to space, at six locations nationwide. <br /><br />Roughly 10,000 qualified to participate in the tests of running 3.5 kilometers within cutoff times _ 23 minutes for male contestants and 28 minutes for female _ but more than two-thirds of them were no-shows. <br /><br />``A total of 3,323 took part in the running tests _ much lower than expected. Maybe, the delay in the tests is the reason for such low participation,'' said Choi Gi-hyuk, a senior researcher at KARI, in charge of the astronaut project. <br /><br />KARI originally planned to stage the tests late July but the institute delayed them for about a month due to nationwide damage from heavy rain at the time. <br /><br />In this climate, criticism is flaring up because the lavish project, costing 26 billion won ($27 million) from taxpayers' pockets and private funds, is more about image boosting than substantial scientific tasks. <br /><br />``It is too expensive to channe <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p>----- </p><p>http://mithridates.blogspot.com</p> </div>