Selection of the country's first astronaut will pick up pace next month with a three and a-half kilometer race to test candidates’ physical strength.

Men must finish the race in 23 minutes and women in 28 minutes in order to pass.

The Korea Aerospace Research Institute will first select five-hundred candidates via resume and a written exam, and then narrow them down to three-hundred in mid-October. In-depth interview sessions will screen 30 from the selected group, which will filter down to ten and eventually two candidates by early next year.

Only one of the two will board the Russian Soyuz spacecraft in April 2008 and fly to the International Space Station to conduct various experiments.