While the final eight astronaut candidates were revealed for the last leg of screenings last month, it seems that we now have only four left to choose from. The only woman candidate among the eight, engineer S. Vanajah, remains among the final four, fueling speculation that the first Malaysian astronaut could very well be a woman.

The final eight candidates underwent a seven-stage screening before four were eliminated, and were initially chosen from a pool of 11,000 applicants since our National Space Agency started the screening campaign in 2003. According to the press release, the final four will undergo “stringent training” in Moscow, Russia, after which the final two candidates will be selected.

One among the two will be eliminated through a further 18-month training stint in Moscow, after which the final candidate will follow the expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) scheduled for October next year.