The nation’s mission to send its first-ever person into space will kick off in November with a six-month search for potential astronauts.

The Ministry of Science and Technology said the project is aimed at producing the first-ever South Korean astronaut by 2007.

To that end, the ministry plans to designate a private entity that would be charged with overseeing the entire process, from candidate selection to training.

The actual selection process is to begin once the operator is decided on, and the final two contestants will be announced in April.

The two finalists will receive training at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Space Training Center in Moscow for about a year.

Based on their performance, one person will be given the honor of boarding Russia’s Soyuz space craft as the first South Korean astronaut in April or November 2007, when the Soyuz is slated to fly to the International Space Station.