Kimchi ready for space launch

(CNN) -- Space, the final frontier, is about to add an Asian flavor.

Kimchi, South Korea's popular pickle dish, has been approved for an historic space mission later this year, according to news reports. The food will blast off along with South Korea's first astronaut after being approved by Russian space authorities, the Yonhap news agency reported.

The approved menu includes fresh and cooked kimchi, spicy chili paste, rice, bean paste soup, instant noodles, sweet cinnamon punch, ginseng teas and a mixed grain and vegetable bar, Yonhap reported, quoting the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI).

The approved foods were developed after two years of research by KARI and the Korea Food Research Institute, Yonhap said. Korean foods displayed "excellent" preservation characteristics, Yonhap quoted a KARI official as saying.

Presently, only U.S.- and Russian-made meals are served in the International Space Station.

Ko San, a 30-year-old computer science engineer, will be South Korea's first astronaut to travel into space on a Russian-made rocket on April 8. He is expected to spend more than a week at the space station, Yonhap said. E-mail to a friend