President Yoon Suk Yeol has named Professor Yoon Young-bin of the Seoul National University(SNU) Aerospace Engineering department as the first chief of the Korea AeroSpace Administration(KASA) which will launch next month. 

Director of National Policy Sung Tae-yoon unveiled the president’s selection during a briefing at the presidential office on Wednesday. 

The president also appointed John Lee, a former senior executive of NASA, as KASA’s head of missions and Roh Kyung-won, the head of the science ministry’s research and development policy office, as deputy head of the agency that will launch on May 27.

Sung said Professor Yoon, who has been teaching at SNU since 1996 and heads the university’s Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, has been taking part in research on liquid-propellant rockets and gas turbine engines for some four decades.

Sung noted that Yoon had participated in the development of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1, known as the Naro, and domestically-developed projectiles as well as lunar probe projects. 

On Lee, Sung described him as an expert on space who has managed NASA’s major space programs while working there for nearly three decades from 1992. 

On Roh, Sung said he is all-around expert with deep understanding on technologies who also has administrative expertise, adding that Roh was appointed as deputy chief in order for KASA to stably operate from its nascent stages.