Yeon-Seok Chae majored in physics at Kyunghee University in Korea and graduated in 1975. He received his master's & doctoral degrees in 1984 and 1987 from the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mississippi State University, USA. In 1975, when he was a university student, he found the Korean rocket weapon “Shinjeon,” developed and used during the Sejong era(1448), and restored it in 1993. He is a rocket engineer who has researched liquid propellant rocket engines for 23 years at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. In November 2002, he took charge of developing Korea's first liquid propellant Sounding Rocket(KSR-3) and successfully launched it. In December 2002, he was appointed the 6th president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. He started the construction of the 'Naro Space Center' and the development of the 'Naro Space Launch Vehicle'. In 2002, it was awarded the 'Korea National Assembly Science and Technology Award'. In 2003, he was awarded the 'Science and Technology Medal of Honor'.