Nanotechnology Engineer in Spaceship That Crashed to Earth Hundreds of Kilometers From Intended Landing Site

Reuters is reporting that a nanotechnology engineer was aboard a Russian space capsule that landed about 260 miles off course in Kazakhstan on Saturday.

The Soyuz capsule landed west of the target area and about 20 minutes past the scheduled time after it adopted a so-called "ballistic landing". The 29 year old nanotechnologist, Yi So-yeon, is South Korea's first astronaut. Along with U.S. commander Peggy Whitson and Russian flight engineer Yuri Malenchenko they were all recovered safely from the spacecraft.

A Reuters photographer at the landing site saw plumes of smoke rising from the capsule, which was lying in its side stamped about 30 cm into the ground with its parachute burning.