Episode 19: Breaking Boundaries with South Korea's First Astronaut, Dr. Soyeon Yi
Join Emily and Alexa in conversation with Dr. Soyeon Yi, Korea's first and only astronaut! We discuss her trajectory towards the stars and her experiences navigating gender and cultural dynamics in STEM in Korea, the US, and Star City in Russia. Dr. Yi also speaks about her time in space and the colorful story of the tradition of the welcome apple upon her return back to Earth. Last but not least, we touch on the necessity of diversity in engineering and space science, as well as Dr. Yi's advice for folks interested in pursuing a similar path.
Show Notes
Transcript
[INTRO MUSIC: “Space” by Music Unlimited]
Emily
Hello and welcome to the Art Astra Podcast. I'm Emily Olsen.
Alexa
I'm Alexa Erdogan. And today with us we have an amazing guest, Dr. Soyeon Yi. Dr. Soyeon Yi is South Korea's first and only astronaut so far. She was selected as an astronaut in December 2006 out of 36,000 applicants. And on April 8, 2008, she launched into space on board Soyuz TMA-12.
During her 11-day mission at the International Space Station, Dr. Yi completed a large number of experiments, widening our understanding of science and contributing to South Korea's science textbooks and Science Channel television lectures. Dr. Yi originally received her Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering, Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, and her PhD from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology [KAIST].
Her Ph.D. thesis was in DNA separation chips using temporal asymmetric ratchet effect in non-uniform E fields. In May 2014, Dr. Yi also received her MBA with an emphasis on technology and global leadership from the University of California, Berkeley.
Dr. Yi, thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to the show!
Soyeon
Thank you for inviting me. So happy to be with you guys here.
Emily
Yeah! We’re so happy to have you!
Alexa
So you initially started out studying mechanics and then built on that with your doctorate in biotechnology. What was it that drew you to those fields in the beginning?
Soyeon
Ah, It was not that serious, frankly speaking. I knew I love engineering and I love science and I'm good at math and science kind of thing. So in my high school, I thought maybe better go to the engineering school. But I don't know what exact major I should choose. I believe many of kind of high school, middle school students are pretty much the same. We know the broadly STEM field is interesting, but we don't know what exact field might be fit in.
But luckily, my school, KAIST, they just accept the students as just the STEM school, not with the kind of detailed major like other universities. So I love it. And then I joined and then has one year kind of STEM school students and second year they want us to register to the specific department and give us some kind of opportunity to taste it. [laughs] But at the time I had a big huge headache because I don't know what major I should pick and what department might be fit me. So it was really dumb, stupid action I made as I just flat out the big huge paper on my dorm room when my roommate was not there. And I write down all the departments I can choose in my school. Because I cannot choose one out of that. What I did is just to make a pair. So which one I like less kind of thing because it's harder to choose what you like more. [laughs]
But it's a little bit easier to choose “what I don't like more” kind of thing. So I eliminate half of the department. And the interesting thing is biology was eliminated in the first round. [laughs]
And then I did exactly same thing as the second round. So it's kind of like a department World Cup. [laugh] And I still remember finally three departments survived. So mechanical engineering, civil engineering, and material science. So I should choose one out of them.
And funny thing is, material science was more like a science and serious. I'm not that kind of science kind of person rather than the engineering kind of person. So that was eliminated first easily. [laughs] And then I went to the college a year later than my friends because I failed to get the admission at the very first round.
So I should wait for a whole year to apply school again and then take the SAT again kind of thing. And when you are a teen, it's really, really important how many of your friends are there.
So material science is no friends of mine was there who went to the college ahead of me because I have my alumni around 20, 30 people. And many of my high school alumni is in the same school because my high school is a science high school, very gifted scientific kids in there. And then those engineering schools, quite many of my friends went there.
So it's easy to eliminate and a big huge debate between the civil engineering and mechanical engineering. Now, as I think, it's the same for me as the adult. But at that time as a kid, it's a really, really serious selection between the civil engineering and mechanical engineering.
It looks really, really different each other. And in the middle of the headache, I called my mom to say hello and ask, “Mom, how do you think? I'm kind of debating between among the department selection because I should submit in two days and I cannot make a choice at all.”
But unfortunately, I was the first person who went to the college in my family. So my mom never been in even middle school at all. And then my father's last one was the high school. So no one knows about college. But anyway, it's mom. So I talked about it. And then I said, “Mom, it's the final round, only have two choices. So I should pick one out of it.”
And then she asked me, “What is the survivor?”
And I said, “Civil engineering and mechanical engineering.”
And funny thing is, when my mom heard about the civil engineering, she’s thinking about the construction worker. And when I talked about the mechanical engineering, not mechanic, but she thought about the person who fixed the car.
And my mom told me, like, “You are a girl, but you only have two choices."
And yeah, "All I eliminated, so I cannot go back. So you should choose one of which.”
"And one of them," my mom said, “It's a hard choice. You are a girl, but construction worker and then car mechanic, both of them are not a girl's job.”
And I said, “I know, but which one might be better?”
And then my mom said, “I think for the girl, maybe mechanic might be better than the construction worker. It looks less tough for the girls.”
But it was funny because I don't think civil engineering is a construction worker and then mechanical engineering is a car mechanic. But when my mom talk about that thing, it's a really funny situation. But I like that because it's a good metaphor. And also, I feel so relieved my mom says so because my gut already go to the mechanical engineering. I need somebody who just make me choose that because more than half of my friends are already in mechanical engineering department.
So, but as a kid, you want to be cool. So I don't want to follow as an emotional thing only because of the friends. I really want to make a choice as a neutral, objective way. But of course, finally it made out of the emotional. But it's a good excuse from my mom.
And I made my mind, “Okay, mechanical engineering. Mom, thank you!” And we just hang up. And I went there. So it was not that serious. I just went there.
But I feel so grateful. And I think I'm so lucky because once I get in, I love mechanical engineering because I'm more like a hardware person. So when I made something, it works and it moves. And sometimes it had a problem, but I can fix it. I can solve the problem. And that made me feel so exciting. So yeah, not because I like it, I went there, but because I just went there, I realized I like it. So yeah, that's how I picked that department. [laughs]
Alexa
Fascinating and such a fortunate position to be in where you end up being a part of something and you end up really loving it in the end, the deeper you go.
Soyeon
Yeah. I feel so thankful. And then, but you know what? At that time, I thought I should have made the perfect choice. But once I study more and more, I realized that I can change. And I just asked me back, why did you, why were you that serious? You can choose anything and you can change it.
And then even school system allow you to change, but you feel so scared to pick wrong one.
So yeah, that was really interesting. And I feel so relieved I was lucky.
Emily
Yes, absolutely.I think there's the way that you approached it also seems like a really phenomenal framework too, of just like the World Cup of disciplines and then getting just kind of like the gut check with your mom. It honestly sounds like you approached it like in the best way you could at the time. But speaking of just kind of plotting out your future, did you ever want to be an astronaut growing up?
Soyeon
Frankly, speaking, I cannot even dare to dreaming to be an astronaut because in Korea,
we didn't have even space agency at the time. And we've never had any human space flight program before. And especially when I was in high school and college, we barely had one or two satellites around the whole nation. So no one knows about space at the time. Even engineering students, they had no idea about the space. So we just only thinking about, you know what, when I went to the mechanical engineering department, my mom thought about right away Hyundai automobiles. [laughs] “Oh, she can get a job over there.”
And many of my friends who went to the electronic or electric engineering, they just thought about the Samsung. Yeah. Even if that companies are not big as like nowadays, but still they are very big name in Korea. And many of my school alumni, more than half of them, they just sucked by those company at the time.
Emily
Mhm.
Soyeon
So we couldn't think about anything more than the job. And Korea was not like now. And actually nowadays Korea is many cool things and K-pops and K-dramas and Samsung and LGs and all Hyundai automobiles and all that kind of things is a very developed country.
But 30 years ago, when I went to the college, everybody just thought about how can we get the job and how we can survive. And many of the people having… struggling to feed their kids as my mom and dad. So dreaming about space is more like a luxury to us.
Emily
That definitely makes sense. But so at what point in your studies were you when the astronaut program opened up? And can you tell us about that process?
Soyeon
Yeah! So that was also very coincident. And I went to the mechanical engineering department, and I realized that I want to go to the graduate school after the college is over. But interesting thing is – almost the end of my college undergrad, Korea has a very, very hard hit by the economic depression. So many of my friends had a hard time with… kind of bankrupt of their families and their fathers are losing their jobs. And that was very, very well known around the late 1990. And then whole careers in my generation all knows that time.
So even harder to get a job. And then even harder to go to the graduate school because they should earn the money because their parents are not in a good shape.
So many of my friends, they changed their minds once they decided to go to the graduate school with me, but they said they cannot. And more interesting thing is almost 1/3 or almost half of my school graduate, they always thinking about to go abroad to study, especially in Japan, German, and US. Most of them just targeting to US. But exchange rate is crazy because of the Korean economic problem. So many of my friends give up to even go to the abroad study.
And who went to the US ahead of me or who already went there, they just getting back because of the exchange rate. But thank God, my mom and dad, they can survive by themselves.
I don't have to earn money right away because thank God my dad still have a job at that time, [laughs] even if I have a younger brother and sisters. So I'm okay to go to the graduate school.
So I'm the only person among my friends group. So everybody go get the job and get out of the school. I'm the only person who went to the graduate school. My dream is to be a professor of the good university. So having a Ph.D. was the must-have to get my job. But in the middle of the mechanical engineering department and for even graduate school, I realized that I don't like software and I don't like coding, even at that time. But many of the engineering schools, even at that time, they should do some coding for the simulation and kind of like that.
And I really want to go to the some field who doesn't care about the computer and software and simulation at all. And that luckily there is one or two labs and then they don't require graduate to have a coding skill. Wow, that's lucky. So that's the only one kind of choice. So I just go there.
And then professor said that we've never had a girl before. So he said he's afraid to pick the female students as a graduate student. I just said, “If you never had that, you can just try it.”
But thank God at that time, he need more graduate students than before. So every year he choose the one or two graduate school, but at that time he should get the four graduate students to taking care of his own project because the project became bigger and bigger.
So one out of two or 100% female is risky to him. But one out of four, it's kind of doable. [laughs]
Still he has three boys. So he became brave and he choose me.
But funny thing is, I was the person who get to the until the end of the whole program. [laughs] But anyway, he accepted me. And after two years, after finishing my master's, and everybody asked me, “Will you go to the Ph.D.?”
Definitely I will, but they just worried about me because as a girl it might be tough, “maybe she cannot survive” kind of thing. But I've never thought about that. I just thought just as granted to go there, but all the guys and males and professors in my department, they all wonder about if I will keep doing it or not. And that was very weird to me.
I've never say I don't want to go. I've never say anything negative, but they just assumed that she might want to leave. Maybe it is too tough for her kind of thing. But I did it. And I clearly expressed my interest to proceed to the Ph.D. And then my advisor came to me like, “And then how about just finish the master's a semester earlier than you planned, and then move to the bioengineering department?” And I said, “Oh, bioengineering and why?”
And he said, “Because I will move my department to the bioengineering department.So I want you to join me.” Oh, that's the invitation! Okay, that's good. And funny thing is, even if I was in a mechanical department, mechanical engineering department, my master's thesis is the micro machine to separate DNA molecules. So it's kind of like a biosystems, bioengineering. So he said that, “Yeah, just the name of departments changed. You just keep doing what you've been doing it.”
And I was very realistic person and I always care about my job and survival. And I thought like, “Oh, then new departments will be established in this school.” And he said, “Yes. So you move to the new department and you will be the first admitted Ph.D. student in new department.” I said, “Oh, that's good.” Yeah, thinking about the point of view of that department, if they cannot provide a good job for the first Ph.D. students, how can they survive? [ laughs]
Because you should make an example or a Ph.D. graduate to bring more students to coming in. So I thought, oh, that's a good idea. If I go there, I don't have to worry about the job. They really want me to get a good job to promoting the department. So I was very realistic. And okay, I will go. And it means I'm the number one Ph.D. student. And he said, “Definitely, you will be one of the first admitted Ph.D.". Oh, okay, deal!
So I just go there. And funny thing is, two years before my graduate, that department expanded. So they started from the biosystems department, but they recruiting a lot of brain engineering people in the school, and they changed the name, bio and brain engineering department. So even if I've never touched any brain thing, my diploma was printed like “a bio and brain engineering department.” So it's not bad! [laughs] Yeah, so I always thinking about the practical and realistic thing. And my advisor said that if you really want to stick into mechanical engineering, I can be double so you can graduate from the mechanical engineering department as a PhD. And I said, “It's a kind of one out of the several 100 people….” But if you go to the bioengineering biosystems department, just two or three graduates, and I'm one of them and very noticeable.
So I choose to move with my advisor. I feel so thankful that he invited me to move together.
So as the World Cup, it's not serious. [laughs]
Alexa
I love that so much.
Emily
Yeah, it's a really brilliant, like strategic move for sure.
Alexa
Yeah, so as you're talking about pursuing your Ph.D. program and doing all the rigorous work that you're doing as part of it, and also later on undergoing astronaut training and so on and so forth - that sounds like a very intense process and a very like mentally demanding process, as well. Was there anything in particular that carried you forward during this time that sort of motivated you or allowed you time to decompress like hobbies or creative outlets, things like that?
Soyeon
For now, I can look back what made me keep doing it, what made me keep motivating myself, what saved me even when I feel so down or demotivated is the kind of humans…. I was extremely lucky that had a great labmates and great friends and alumni. They are all my supporting groups and they are very diverse. So they can help me very strategically, even if I didn't mean it.
Yeah, so first of all, most of the time in my lab, during the masters and PhDs and all that kind of time, I was the almost only female. I have, my advisor has several administrators and secretary is the kind of female, but they are not exactly same lab with me, more like admin person. So in the lab, working on the crazy project or overnight things and I was only female, but it was really, really lucky in Korea, quite male dominant society, but my labmates never treat me differently.
Sometimes it's too much they treat me like the exact same male. [laughs]
And then also in the middle of the working, we worked in the clean room. So we wear the stupid white things and then going into the air showers and then hyper pressures to make all the dust out. And it's a little bit more tired and a tough situation. And we always should be more than two people because extremely dangerous environment. And in Korean, it's that kind of close intimacy environment. We call each other brother and sister and depending on the age and depending on the year you are in. And so most of them call each other bros and kind of thing.
And when we are in the office field, they always call me sis.
But in the middle of the work, many of the guys call me bro unconsciously. And I said, “What did you say?” And he said, “Oh, sorry, I should call you sis.” But unconsciously calling bro is even worse. Then you never recognize me as a female. And then, oh, we are just the same team. So those people is a great support of mine. And whatever problem I had, and I always can share with them. And we all know each other's research project. We all know each other's problem.
We all know each other's even personal hard time and personal thing.
And especially my mom and dad was living in a very kind of low income bracket area. So whenever a typhoon hit that city, we always have a flooded. And when I was a kid, I didn't know why we never moved out of that area. But once I grow up, I realize that that's the problem of the money. We cannot afford to get out of that town. So until the kind of second or third year of the college, whenever the big huge typhoon hit Korea, I cannot sleep well worrying about my family is still there. And because of that, all my friends knows that. Whenever the huge rain comes, I'm kind of anxious and worried about that.
And so all of them just call me or ask me, “Is your mom okay? Is your dad okay? Your family okay? Our city has a huge rain, but how about your city down there?” That was really touching. So we just act like all in the same family.
I also know all my labmates, brothers and sisters and mom and dad and all that kind of thing. So That's really wonderful. Those kind of support groups helped me a lot. Even when I applied an astronaut, everybody knows that. And then they just make fun of me always.
And they just joking about me like, “Oh, there was 36,000 people. How can you make it?” "I know!" Yeah, but it's just for fun. And whenever I went to the selection process and I came back, they always ask me 100 of the question: "What kind of people did you met? And during the interview, what question they ask? And what kind of test you did make it?" And then, “We know you will be survive and we know you gonna beat the all other contestants.”
And when I survived out of the written exam, they said that “Thank God! Once you got off the written exam, physical is nothing because you are very very physical person rather than the brain person,” and we just joking around.
Yeah, those humans - they are the number one thing who helped me a lot getting through those physically and mentally hard time.
Emily
Yeah, it sounds like you have such a beautiful community that you built up through your studies. And then so, when you went to Star City during your training, what was the community like there?
Soyeon
That was interesting. First of all, I feel so grateful that I already used to be the very minority out of the community because mechanical engineering department in my class - 120 classmate, only two girls. In my lab also, 20 labmates and then I'm the only female sometimes.
And then of course, the Star City, even if there is a families out there, wives out there, and then some admin peoples and nurse and doctors are female, but most of the cosmonauts and instructors are male. And even under the military.
So some military culture was a little bit strange and new to me, but engineering, science and male dominance is quite kind of common to me. So it was not that bad.
But first of all, they've never worked with an Asian woman even before. So they feel so strange to me. I can see they are hesitating to accept me as a colleague. And some of the soldiers just treat me like a woman, not as a cosmonaut. So that was hard. But as time goes by, they realize that I really want to be one of them. And as time goes by, they realize that I'm okay to accept as their family member. So almost end of the training, everybody treat me like their family member. And that was also wonderful. And then all those Russian guys became like my lab mates. [laughs]
So they are always on my side. Even when we have some kind of conflict between me and my government. And those Russian people is in my side and help me against my government. [laughs] And then are they Korean or Russian? [laughs] And then sometimes they come to me. Soyeon, you know what? You are the Korean citizen, so you can't be against your own government, but we can do anything. So step back and we can help you.” And then that was a huge support to me.
Emily
That's brilliant. And then going back to just the incredible breadth of your studies and your career as an astronaut and as a biotechnologist, you've been at the cutting edge of science. So were you into science fiction either growing up or later in your career?
Soyeon
I love science fiction. But I've never thought I can be one of the characters in those sci-fi movies or drama, but at some point when I was in the rocket, “Oh my god, I'm the kind of kickass person I watched through the sci-fi!”
You know what, when I was a kid, I don't know why, but I watched some kind of space related animation or something. It's a very early age, not like a high tech like Disney Plus or Netflix nowadays.
They are really, really realistic, but old timers, we have a stupid computer graphics and very unrealistic sci-fi at the time, but still we are into it. I don't know why, but whenever I watched those sci-fi in the spaceship, there's only one female. She's more like a biologist or a chemistry person. And then whenever the male crew members has some kind of conflict, those female crew member, I don't know why, but she’s always called “Doctor.” And then she's helping the people relieve the conflict. Quite wise and very attractive… And I thought like, “That's really cool to be those one female who can help all other male crews when they are very childish.”
And when I'm sitting on the capsule and I look around and I'm in the capsule as a PhD in bioengineering, like a doctor, and 2 Russian cosmonauts. ”Oh, that's the thing I dreamed about.” And I've never wanted to be an astronaut, but those sci-fis influenced me and then wanted to be the cool female doctor in the spaceship kind of thing. So that really interesting feeling at the time.
Alexa
It's interesting to me as you talk about your experiences, how it's sort of like, you're approaching life very analytically and pursuing the research and the passions that really fascinate you in STEM. Not really thinking about it too much of like, I'm a girl or like I'm a woman, so I should do this.
But then like the environments you're interacting with are so gendered in a way. And it's like, "I wasn't thinking about that", but clearly it's at the top of everyone else's mind, but not yours, because you're just doing your job. You're just exploring your mental passions and things like that.
Soyeon
Oh yeah, so sometimes some kind of not good people try to kind of point it out like ”You are a female, so you cannot do this,” or “I prefer to work with the male colleagues,” that kind of thing.
I always should face that kind of situation, not often, but sometimes definitely I should have it, especially in Asian culture. They don't know that kind of action is embarrassing at all. They just think it's the right thing to do. But thank God, I have really good colleagues and friends around there. And then many of my male colleagues make them feel embarrassed on behalf of me. Because if a woman's shouting or pointing it out kind of thing, and they just treat us like aggressive bitch. But if my male colleagues be on my side, that works always better.
So if someone just tried to talk to only male people, and it might let me say, “Oh, he would be in trouble….[laughs] And he doesn't know what he should do,” and that kind of thing, and it make me feel not bad at all.
Sometimes my male colleagues [say], “He doesn't know what he is missing” and - [laughs] - that kind of thing. So they always try to protect me and be on my side. And I trust them very, very deeply.
So those people's action doesn't make me down at all. Because I don't have to care about the total strange people's action. And I more care about my people's action and trust. So yeah. I'm more like a people person and a human person.
So those people around me is always helping me, even that kind of gender-related issue. And I still remember when I had an exchange program in UC Berkeley. In the middle of the class project meeting, and we have four, five students together, and I was in a Ph.D. program, but that class is more like undergrad subject. Because I'm an international student, I've never been in U.S. university and college before. I just pick one basic subject. And I try to explain something I have and then what is my idea. And then actually that course was so easy to me as a PhD student because it's undergrad course. And I knew how to solve the problem already. So I tried to help my teammates.
And one of the guys who just looked down at me like, “Your English is so bad. I cannot understand what you're talking about at all. So shut up.” And he told me like that.
And I was so frustrated and I don't know what to do. And I believe I can say something very reasonably. And I know my English is not perfect, but I don't think–not that bad. I cannot say anything.
But right after that, one of my colleague right next to me, the guy, exactly same American boy. And he said that, “Not because of Soyeon's English, but because of you are stupid, you cannot understand her thing.” [laughs]
Alexa
Yes!
Soyeon
Yeah! And he said that, “Soyeon keep going!”
And so not only English situation, but also some genders and ideas and technology and that kind of thing. I always have my white knight was right next to me. So they've saved me and they are very good people. So yeah, so that kind of things always make me feel confident enough.
Emily
That's wonderful. I'm not at all surprised that you inspire that in other people as well with as you've said like you're a people person but also just the breadth of your experience is truly so cool. But going back to like your time in Star City and your time in space, I have two questions that are kind of related - was there anything that surprised you about life in space? And also you mentioned a story the night we met about when you returned to Earth and there is a tradition of like a welcome apple, and I would love to hear that.
Soyeon
Life in space is always surprising and wonderful. Even if we watch it on YouTube and NASA videos and all that kind of things and people are floating in the space station, but when you feel your own body is floating, it's totally different.
And “Oh my God, I'm floating.” [laughs] You have a zero weight and weightlessness and your body is floating and that's incredible and you can fly. But in the same time, you realize that how uncomfortable the zero gravity life it is because we all humans are accustomed to live with the 1G gravity. And we are not accustomed to live with zero gravity, even if no matter how much we dream to be in there.
And we know how stupid we are. We always do something unconsciously rather than consciously. And we always do our stupid habit again and again and again, even if we really want to change it. So kind of like that, and we really want to wake up 30 minutes earlier but it's really hard. You already have a ritual to wake up 7 and then just wake up 6.30 is impossible sometimes. So you just keep doing same thing.
And you really want to quit eating in the middle of the night, but why the eating middle of night is much tastier than the other time kind of thing. It's harder to change your habit. And then in space, the same, and you never pick it up the spoon to thinking about “I should pick up the spoon.” You just pick up the spoon to eat something. And you leave the spoon on the table without thinking, “I should leave my spoon on the table.” You just let it down because you want to stop eating. So you just keep doing it. But in space, your spoons fly away. You should tie it or attach it kind of thing, but you unconsciously put it down.
That bothers you a lot because wasting a lot of time to find your spoon, to find your pen, to find your something. Oh my God, I had a whole year training and I thought it's a stupid training to keep telling me you should tie everything. But right after arriving in space, you just do unconsciously whatever you did on the ground with the gravity. You forgot about the being in zero gravity.
Every single moment surprise you and also make you upset about how stupid you are and how kind of reactive you are rather than proactive. But also you can be thankful to having a gravity because gravity make our life easier. The gravity help us to work better because you can sit down at the table and then automobiles can move only because of the gravity and all that kind of thing.
And your even blood circulation, more than 70% is by the gravity rather than your heartbeat because heart always helping the blood pump up to the brain. All other body part is thanks to the gravity.
So we owe a lot to the gravity, but we didn't know until we lose it. So but not only gravity, everything: parents, friends, and even stupid iPhone, no matter bad iPhone you have, once you lost, you know how precious it is. And every day I complain about my Comcast signals is so weak, but when it's totally blackout, you realize that how precious that internet connection it is.
So yeah, once you kind of totally lose something in space, you realize how precious that thing it is, as well as the gravity. So that was the very big, huge surprising and inspiration to me. Yeah.
Wow, humans are very stupid until we lost. We don't know how precious that it is. And we always take it for granted. So all those kind of 9, 10 days is over and then getting back to the earth.
And before talking about those welcome days, I would love to let you know whole year in Russia for training was in the military base, so not in the downtown. If I stay in the Moscow downtown, that happening couldn't be possible, but it's a military base. So they don't have much fresh fruit, especially during the fall and winter.
During the summer, they have a lot of good fruit from Ukraine. But most of the half of the years, they don't have fresh fruit at all in the middle of the military base, very, very rural area from Moscow. And first of all, early 2000, they still have some Soviet culture. So they don't care about the people's taste. They just do whatever they've done before.
But I love fruit. But whenever I went to the grocery store, I cannot find a good fruit at all. So only thing I can do is to buy the canned fruit, like a canned pineapple and a canned something.
But interesting thing is: canned pineapple is never run out. So whenever I went to the grocery store, they always have a canned pineapple. So I buy almost every week one can, big huge can of the pineapple. But funny thing is, the whole town people observe me, only Asian girl.
Even if they didn't mean it, they just observing me, what kind of bread I buy, what kind of food I buy, and what kind of food I made, only because I'm the noticeable person. No matter how unique things some Russian guys did, nobody cares about that. But I did just a normal thing, just buy the bread, but they just talk about, “Oh, Soyeon buys the bread.”
And then I changed my cap from the white one to the red. Everybody knows, “Oh, so today, Soyeon wears a red cap” and that kind of thing. So at some point, without checking the fact, they just thought, I love pineapple. [laughs] “She buy the pineapple can everywhere.”
So when I land on the ground, and Russian tradition, when the old crews came down from the space station to make them feel refreshed, because we are so tired. We feel so heavy with our body and we feel very thirsty because our body fluid is a lack of all the blood going down to the feet from the brain. So we feel so thirsty because of the lack of blood kind of thing from the heart and then head.
So one of the tradition is the search and rescue team bring the fresh apple and then give it to the crew. But I had some accident. So search and rescue team came late and they cannot bring all of the unnecessary things on time because we are too far away from the designated area.
But anyway, they didn't forget about the apple. So I just crawl out of the capsule and I lay down on the plain for 30 minutes and then around an hour search and rescue team arrived.
And they just do the some emergency and then first aid things done and then finally they just tried to give it, one of the apples, to me. And then far away behind me and then General Korzun he's almost like my Russian father and he was the Vice President of the Star City, GCTC Training Center. So he was the number two, kind of three-star general or kind of like person.
And then he just yelled like, “No, no, no!! Stop giving the apple to Soyeon! And here’s Soyeon's pineapple!”
And then he bring the fresh, not even canned pineapple! During that time, finding the fresh pineapple is just so hard. You can only find the fresh pineapple in the luxury department store in the middle of the Moscow department store. But anyhow, he found it and he cut it and then put it in the ziplock and he bring it for me, especially for me. And he run to me and give it to me, the fresh pineapple. So I just pick it up and eating it.
Oh my God, it's so good because it's fresh. But more funny thing is my favorite fruit is apple.
[laughs]
Alexa
So a regular apple would have been just fine - [laughs]
Soyeon
Yeah, just fine to me, but only because I cannot find apple, I eat pineapple instead in the GCTC.
But everybody's misunderstanding that I love pineapple because I buy the pineapple can every day. And the funny thing is there was televised through the whole Korean TV channel, because it's the landing of the first Korean astronaut.
And my mom and sister is watching the TV. And my sister asked my mom, “Mom, is the pineapple her favorite fruit?”
And then my mom said, “I don't think so.” [laughs]
But on the television, some of the people said that, “Because Soyeon’'s favorite food is pineapple. Those generals especially prepared for her.”
That kind of things happen. And my mom said, “As far as I know, your sister loves apple instead of the pineapple, but I don't know what's going on.”
Maybe because I'm not living with my parents almost 20 years. Because I went to the college, even high school, I was staying in the dormitories. And my mom said to my sister, “Maybe her taste changed. Maybe she likes a pineapple. But as far as I know, her favorite fruit is apple.”
And I heard about that conversation that was so funny to me. [laughs]
But I can feel General Korzun's heart. He especially prepared for me, and whole Star City community watching me and care about me and make my landing special.And that was incredible. I never ever can forget about it.
Alexa
That's so wholesome.
Going back to the whole strength of community, that seems to be a recurring theme for you.
Soyeon
Yeah.
Alexa
And actually, so speaking of community, you yourself are incredibly active in the space community still to this day. Are there any particular trends that you've noticed either specific to the space industry and culture in Korea or even more internationally speaking that you've noticed? Or in another way of asking that is, there anything about the space industry right now that you find the most exciting?
Soyeon
Yeah, of course. It's really exciting because when we only have government programs, a lot of limitation and exclusions, and it's hard to collaborate each other internationally, not because they don't want to, but because of the diplomatic problems and security problems.
But thanks to the commercial space booming up, we had more opportunity to work with all diverse peoples around the globe.
And I am very, very welcoming more than any other people, especially the persons who came from the non-US, non-Russia, non-China kind of people. Because as kids who grow up in the small little country, they always believed that it might be impossible to get into the space industry until several years ago, because not that many commercial programs happen.
But nowadays, wherever you are, if you are good at something and then you have some necessary capability or skills, there's no border to hire people to work together, especially in the commercial place.
So that is a really, really good environment for many of the people who dreamed about space.
But still, space field is quite small and limited than any other field. So community is even more important because everybody knows everybody. [laughs]
Like Emily knows me through Christina, and I can check anyone at least one or two steps. So you should be careful.[laughs] But I think that's really good because you can easily find the right person and good person also through the network. So I love that kind of community mindset in the space field. So I'm enjoying that kind of thing also, mhm.
Emily
As a follow-up, do you have any advice for young people interested in space, especially if they're forging a path that they don't necessarily have anyone who's forged it ahead before.
Soyeon
Most important thing is just to be yourself. You don't have to fake it and you don't have to polish it because at some point everybody knows each other, real you.
So I don't mean you are trying to deceiving people. I just mean just be yourself. And I think any kind of field, working together is kind of like a puzzle, like a jigsaw puzzle. So even if some pieces looks like it doesn't belong to this puzzle, but finally you find a place to fit in, right? So it's a matter of time.
If you love space, if you love science, if you love STEM, just do whatever you love to do. And you will realize that you can have better skills and your skills are a little bit more keen and polished. And you have your own kind of capability. And some part you are better than other people. Some part you are not that better than other people. It doesn't matter. And finally, you will find a place to fit in as a jigsaw puzzle. Yeah, some jigsaw puzzle, it doesn't belong to this puzzle at all, weird colors and weird shape. But finally, we will find the place to fit in.
I believe diversity is the most important thing to make a system being healthy. Because universal thing always dangerous when you have a totally unexpected problem, no one can solve the problem. Any kinds of diversity, even more than necessary, is the best way to be healthy, to prepare for the unexpected future. And everybody can bring the all different kinds of solution and you can find the best one out of it and optimal one out of it.
So not only the gender, but also the ethnicity and also field and background, economic background, and industry background, anything. So whatever I want to do, I really want to do my best to make my teams and community as diverse as possible. Even if those item of diversity is not related with our project, not related with our kind of field, it doesn't matter because that always finally prove that it helps. And once you have a big, huge field of the corn, only one species, and then one disease came in, whole crops all go bad.
But if you have a diverse, some of them must survive and then they just reproduce again and then make the whole field revive again much sooner than the universal field.
So we are kind of like that. And that's the power of many of the countries who have a diversity of their own community and they can help each other. So space is also same.
And some people are totally misunderstanding. “Space field only have a rocket scientist.” Definitely not. And 100 of the rocket scientists cannot make anything happen. We need a lawyer, we need an admin, we need a secretary, we need a technician, we need some other field. And just 100 of the best of anything cannot do anything. We need a combination of the good people. So just be yourself, follow your gut and do whatever you love to do.
But don't be lazy. That's the important thing. Yeah. And do your best and always move proactively and then move ahead of other people and spend more time than any other people that always pay back to you, I believe.
Emily
That's brilliant. I especially love both of the frameworks that you're talking about, but especially like, I feel like a lot of people don't really think about a diversity of perspectives as the resource that it is in a lot of different situations, not even just limited to space, of like when you encounter a problem, if no one has encountered that particular problem before or within that specific framework, then it's a lot more difficult to reach a solution that requires stepping outside of that context.
Soyeon
Yeah, right.
Emily
If you're comfortable talking about it, can you tell us about what you're working on now?
Soyeon
Oh yeah! So after my spaceflight, I have been serving for KARI, Korean Aerospace Research Institute for several years. And then I realized that they don't have a human space flight program anymore. And of course, I was so happy to work as space ambassadors and space education and outreach activities kind of thing. But after working on that thing for more than five, six years, I realized that I cannot do that job forever. Yeah, I really want to be more professional.
I want to have my own expertise.
At the time, still I was in my 30's. So many of the NASA astronauts who was called the former astronaut, once they became almost retired age. But my case is I became “former astronaut” in the late 30s, so I cannot leave like a retired astronaut from even that age.
So my other thing is, oh, I realized that I cannot get back to my original research field because I have five, six years total blank of my published and research portfolios are totally empty in that field. And I realized a lot of the brilliant kids, they got a new, fresh PhDs that they are much better than me. [laughs]
So I decided to pivot my career. So get back to the school and do my MBA. And I hope at the time, combined with my research background and technology PhD with MBA might be good to working in the technology field, especially a lot of technology startups are booming up around the late 20s, early 2010 and almost 2020 kind of thing.
So yeah, I went to the UC Berkeley MBA program and then after that program, I've been working with several technology startup as a business development. But startup is really good because when they need the technology people, then I can work for the research team also in the middle of the business development person. And even if I was hired as a business person, but I can act like a PI of the research fund and research grant.
So I did actually. So I can do both sometimes. And my engineering teams loves me because when they work with the business people, they are having a hard time to convince them or they are having a hard time. Some business people just order them to do whatever business team want to do. It's hard to communicate each other, but my engineering teams always kind of respect me as an engineer. And also I respect them. I have their own language. and I can translate between the business teams and engineering teams. So I enjoyed that time.
So until 2024, I worked with several startups as a full-time business development person.
But cause of some personal situation, I couldn't get a full-time job to take care of the family. So I left the company. So from 2024 and now, I'm doing more like part-time consultant and advisor and executive advisor for some technology company, some space company, sometimes for just a certain project, I'm helping them.
And for now, I'm debating, like as I did between the civil engineering and mechanical engineering kind of thing, should I get back to the full-time commitment with a company?
Because as I told you, I love community and people. So I miss the time I worked in the company as a full-time person because that is the community I love to work with. But nowadays I'm working as a part-time and consultant and a kind of independent contributor and couldn't have that kind of mood and environment anymore as a more like outside people.
So it's a little bit debating now. So should I go back or not? And then of course, love to have a flexible schedule, but still miss the people who I worked with 24-7. And yeah, so nowadays it's kind of in the middle of the negotiating and debating [laughs] in me, yeah.
Alexa
If folks want to follow along with your journey and learn more about you as well, is there other places online where people can find you?
Soyeon
Oh yeah, I have my own website. So you can find me, soyeon.space. And also I have a LinkedIn. Easily you can find me with my own name. And I'm not good at the social network. So everybody told me you should have Instagram, you should do the Facebook kind of thing.
But yeah, I realized that people who are very good at that is they have their own skills and they don't even have to make an effort. They just keep doing it. But my case is I should make some special effort to keep updating. And I will do my best in any way. [laughs]
Emily
Amazing. And we'll make sure to link to all of these in our show notes as well!
Soyeon
Okay, yeah, I will also make sure to link this podcast in my website also.
Alexa
Oh, thank you! We really appreciate it. Thank you.
Soyeon
Thank you.
Emily
Yeah, thank you so, so much! This has been such a wonderful discussion.
Soyeon
Me too. Yeah.
[interlude music: “Space” by Music_Unlimited]
Alexa
Thank you for listening to today’s episode with astronaut Dr. Soyeon Yi! As we mentioned, a written transcript of this episode and all show notes and links are available on our website at artastra.space.
Emily
If you liked this episode, please recommend it to your friends and networks and give us a rating on whatever platform you’re listening! This helps other listeners find our show! Til next time!
Alexa
Til next time!
[outro music: “Space” by Music_Unlimited]