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).
In addition, Mr Putin will meet 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.
The Moscow Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, located at the base of the Conquerors of Space monument in Cosmonauts Alley, opened on April 10, 1981, in honour of the 20th anniversary of Yury Gagarin’s space flight.
The museum displays samples of space equipment, the personal belongings of public figures in in the space sector, archival documents, films and photographic materials, coins, stamps, and works of figurative and applied arts.