hankyoreh

Preparations for local student amateur radio operators to talk with South Korea's first astronaut while in space are complete, organizers for the event said Saturday.

The Korean Amateur Radio League (KARL) said 30 students at a high school in Pyeongtaek, about 60 km south of Seoul, rehearsed procedures to contact the International Space Station (ISS) while it orbits Earth.

Each student will be allowed to pose questions to Yi So-yeon, who is to become the first South Korean national to reach space next week.

"Students are curious about how Yi felt when she was blasting off into space on a rocket, and what it feels like to be in a near-weightless environment," said a KARL organizer.

The communication that will take place on April 13 is part of the "Amateur Radio on the International Space Station" program that was started in December 2002. The program aims to boost interest in telecommunications and space technology among youngsters around the world.

At present, 339 schools in 30 countries participate in the program.

Yi, meanwhile, is awaiting liftoff at Kazakhstan's Baikonur Space Center on Tuesday. The 29-year-old Yi, a bio systems engineer who will take off on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft, will be the second Asian national to reach space. She is expected to stay onboard the ISS for about a week while conducting various experiments, and is scheduled to board a capsule bound for Earth on April 19.

Yi and Ko San, the backup astronaut, were selected as finalists from 36,206 hopefuls in late 2006. Ko was picked last September to be the primary candidate, but there was a last-minute change last month.

PYEONGTAEK, South Korea, April 5 (Yonhap)