Yi So-yeon, the first South Korean astronaut to go into space, still feels the consequences of the rough landing that brought Expedition 16 members back to Earth aboard the Soyuz TMA-11 capsule. Officials announced on Tuesday that Yi has been admitted to hospital after she reported severe back pains, probably caused by the trip back to Earth, the Associated Press reported.

The 29-year-old astronaut was rushed to hospital after being forced to cancel a meeting with President Lee Myung-bak. The Science Ministry released a statement the next day saying that had Yi suffered minor injuries to her neck muscles and spinal column. However, no further details were given on the astronaut’s condition.

"She has complained of considerable back pains and will have to cancel all her appointments for the time being, including visits to the presidential office and TV interviews," a doctor at the military hospital told Yonhap news agency, AFP reports.

Sources close to the hospital said the investigation on her pain continues, but it is probably the result of the steep landing on April 19, when the Russian Soyuz TMA-11 capsule missed its pre-established landing spot and ended up 230 miles away from its initial target as a result of a technical problem.

Yi talked about her experience in a press conference after Expedition 16’s return to Earth, held at Russia’s Star City cosmonaut training center outside Moscow, describing moments of fear while seeing flames outside the capsule as they were descending through the atmosphere: “At first I was really scared because it looked really, really hot and I thought we could burn,” she explained.

The 29-year-old female bioengineering student, who was chosen out of 36,000 candidates for the job to travel to the International Space Station on April 10, becoming the first South Korean to achieve such a performance, made women organizations in her country consider her a role model that encourages Korean women who want to enter science and technology (a field that puts high difficulty in finding a job, as opposed to men).