"The green light given by the rocket company and state-run laboratory will permit all 18 experiments to be conducted according to plan," said the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, adding that the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation and Institute for Biomedical Problems has certified test devices and biospecimens that will allow the astronaut to conduct tests in space.

The ministry said the equipment passed tests on toxicity, resistance to extreme vibration, shock and ability to operate in the orbital environment of the International Space Station (ISS).

The equipment that will be taken to the ISS include a scale that can measure weight in space, an incubator for microbes and cells, fruit flies and equipment for weather observation and noise-level testing, it said.

Yi So-yeon, a female researcher at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, will blast off on April 8 from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Space Center and stay on board the space station for about a week. She is scheduled to board a capsule for earth on April 19.

The 29-year-old biosystems engineer will be the South Korea's first astronaut to make a space flight.

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