The only South Korea astronaut has resigned from her duties. The astronaut resignation led to severe criticism of the government, which provided massive funding to the country's space program.

Yi So-yeon, a female astronaut, was the only one that South Korea had and her resignation letter to the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) was recently accepted in which she has stated personal reasons behind her move.

The 36-year-old Ms Yi is the first Korean to travel to the International Space Station (ISS) on board a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in 2008. In space, she conducted 18 experiments and in a statement that time she said that she hopes the people in South Korea will be "happy" about her historic space mission.

Resignation from the space program was on her mind since June as in an interview to a Korean newspaper Dong-A Ilbo, she announced her resignation and also stated that she was worried about her career prospects.

She said, "I feel bad that I'm the one always blamed for the failure of the space business - even though there are problems with government policy toward the space business".

After her resignation, she has been labeled as a 'quitter' by a conservative pundit and also the KARI is facing some serious accusations that largely state that it had chosen a wrong candidate for the expensive project, thereby wasting the taxpayers' money.

South Korea government had reportedly paid $AU29 million for Ms Yi's mission and now is facing criticism which states that her mission was nothing but an expensive publicity stunt.