The President looked over the museum’s exhibits, which include models of rocket and space technology, cosmonauts’ personal items and archive documents, and also visited the Three Days in the Life of Gagarin exhibition, marking 80 years since the birth of the world’s first cosmonaut.
During the link-up with the International Space Station, Vladimir Putin congratulated the crew on the upcoming holiday. Currently, the ISS has a crew of six: commander Koichi Wakata (Japan), flight engineers Mikhail Tyurin (Russia) and Rick Mastracchio (USA), expedition flight engineers Alexander Skvortsov (Russia) and Oleg Artemyev (Russia), and expedition flight engineer and expedition commander Steven Swanson (USA).
Mr Putin also met with President of the International Committee on Space Research Giovanni Bignami, who is in Russia in preparation for the Committee’s 40th scientific assembly, which will be held in Moscow at the beginning of August at Lomonosov Moscow State University.