CNN reports that the first Korean American is headed to space.
35-year-old Jonny Kim graduated last week with 12 others from NASA’s Artemis program.
11 of the candidates including Kin were chosen from a pool of over 18,000 applicants.
Kim will now be able to participate in International Space Station missions to the moon and Mars.
The Asian astronaut expressed his gratitude on Twitter, writing, “a true privilege and honor to walk among the @NASA Astronaut Corps with my brothers and sisters.”
“We know there are many qualified and deserving candidates out there – we’re the lucky ones to represent humanity. Let’s work towards a better future for our world and our children.”
Kim is also a former Navy SEAL, serving as a combat medic, sniper and navigator on over 100 combat operations across two deployments to the Middle East.
He also earned a doctorate of medicine at Harvard Medical school as well as a degree in mathematics at the University of San Diego.
Kim’s interest in becoming an astronaut was because he “fundamentally believed in the NASA mission of advancing our space frontier all the while developing innovation and new technologies that would benefit all of humankind.”
Speaking about his family, Kim revealed that he is a child of immigrants.
“My parents were South Korean immigrants who came to America in the early 80s for the hope of a better life for their children,” Kim said in a 2017 interview with NASA.
A true privilege and honor to walk among the @NASA Astronaut Corps with my brothers and sisters. We know there are many qualified and deserving candidates out there – we're the lucky ones to represent humanity. Let's work towards a better future for our world and our children. pic.twitter.com/eUv8iSK7gn
— Jonny Kim (@JonnyYKim) January 13, 2020
