The government will likely select in August the nation’s first astronaut from two finalists currently training in Russia.

Science and Technology Minister Kim Woo-sik told a news conference Thursday that the final candidate should be chosen by September as the ministry must notify Russia by that time who it plans to send aboard the Soyuz spacecraft.

The two finalists, Go San and Yi Soyeon, began training early last month at Russia’s Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center.

Only one of them will get to board the Soyuz spacecraft and travel to the International Space Station orbiting the earth in April 2008