The nation's first astronaut Yi Soyeon will return to Earth Saturday afternoon Korean time after completing her mission in space.

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology says she'll return on a Soyuz TMA-Eleven spacecraft that will land in Kazakhstan at 5:38 p.m. Also aboard will be U.S. astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russia's Yuri Malenchenko

Ms. Yi will bid farewell to the crew at the International Space Station and board the Soyuz around eleven a.m. She'll change into a flight suit and prepare for her return.

Once arriving and completing official schedule, she'll take a physical and rest at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center Hospital for a week. She'll return to Korea late this month.