First Korean Art Piece Confirmed for International Space Station

Boryeong-Hosted Youth Space Science Competition, 20 Elementary Division Winners Selected
Heading to Space in April Next Year

The first artwork from our country to be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) has been decided.

Participants of the Youth Space Science Competition finals, co-hosted by Boryeong and the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity, are taking a group commemorative photo. Photo by Boryeong

Boryeong (CEO Kim Jeong-gyun) announced on the 3rd that the final round of the Youth Space Science Competition was successfully held at the National Science Museum in Daejeon on the 31st of last month.

Co-hosted by Boryeong and the Korea Foundation for the Advancement of Science and Creativity (Chairman Jo Yul-rae), this competition was themed "Space Medicine." Elementary school students created paintings, while middle and high school students wrote research proposals on "Problems that may occur in the human body after staying on the space station for more than one year and possible solutions."

The 20 selected artworks from the elementary division will be loaded onto Axiom Space's Ax-4 mission, scheduled for April next year, and sent to the International Space Station. These paintings will be the first payload and the first artwork from our country to head to the space station in 17 years since Dr. Yi So-yeon.

The three teams from the middle and high school divisions will receive prizes that include visits to space companies such as NASA in the United States, Axiom Space, and Intuitive Machines, as well as mentoring on their research projects at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Kim Jeong-gyun, CEO of Boryeong, expressed his expectation, saying, "The paintings by our country's children, which will be introduced at the space station in April next year, will inspire many young people in new ways."