Korea's first astronaut, Yi Soyeon, began her travel into space Tuesday night.

Yi, a biosystems engineer, and two Russian cosmonauts blasted off from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Space Center at 8:16 p.m., Korean time, aboard a Russian spacecraft.

The Soyuz TMA-12 spacecraft entered the earth's orbit nine minutes after blastoff. It is scheduled to arrive at the International Space Station on Thursday after flying around the earth 32 times.

Yi and the Russian cosmonauts held a launch ceremony at Baikonur seven hours before blastoff. They boarded the Soyuz spacecraft at around 5:30 p.m.

Yi will conduct 18 scientific experiments during her eight-day stay at the station. She will return to Earth on April 19th.

With the successful launch, Korea has become the 36th country in the world to engage in human space flight.

President Lee Myung-bak congratulated the successful launch of the nation's first astronaut after watching the launch at the plaza in front of Seoul City Hall.