The nation’s first astronaut, Ko San, will take his first step into space April eighth of next year aboard Russian spacecraft Soyuz from a space center in Kazakhstan.

Ko San and his backup partner Yi So-yeon made this announcement from Moscow, saying the spacecraft would travel space for three days and then dock at an international space station.

The 30-year-old technology researcher Ko will stay at the space station for roughly seven to eight days and conduct 18 different experiments prepared in advance of the trip.

Ko said he is scheduled to return to Earth on the 19th of April to the northern region of Kazakhstan.

The two astronauts will return to Korea from their current training in Russia next month and travel to the U.S. to receive technical training. They are expected to return to the Russian space center after that, to go through their final training.