South Korea - Day 4

Tuesday was the second day of the IAC conference. I went to a number of panels, including one on small space programs. (Did you know Estonia had a space program?) The highlight of the day was when I got to sit in on a 20-person round table discussion with Administrator Charlie Bolden (he's the guy that runs NASA). It was a really cool chance to be able to ask questions and find out a little more about his priorities.


In the evening there was another young professionals event - a 'spacefarer social.' It featured a panel of astronauts, cosmonauts, and taikonauts answering fun questions about space. There were representatives from the US, Canada, Russia, EU, Japan, and China. They were all entertaining - they told their favorite stories from being in space along with other tales. The Chinese astronaut, though speaking through an interpreter, was really funny and made a number of jokes, which I thought was impressive given the language barrier.
After the panel, we made our first attempt to go out in Daejeon and see what night life the city had to offer. Unfortunately, the main thing it had to offer that evening was heavy rain, preventing us from wandering around. After trying to wait it out, we finally decided to put our adventure off until tomorrow.