The nation’s first astronaut will travel to space on Tuesday, making South Korea the 35th country in the world to engage in human space flight.

Biosystems engineer Yi Soyeon will board Russia’s Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft along with two Russian cosmonauts, including the captain, Sergei Volkov.

The spacecraft is scheduled to blast off from Kazakhstan’s Baikonour Space Center at 8:16 p.m., Korean time, to head to the International Space Station.

The launch comes seven years after Seoul drew up a plan for space development and two years after the process of selecting the nation’s first astronaut began.

With Tuesday’s blastoff, Yi will become the second Asian woman and 49th woman in the world to go into space.

A Korea Aerospace Research Institute official who oversees astronaut development said he's confident that Yi, who carries with her the dreams of the Korean people, will do her best and successfully complete her mission.