Russian Federation Prime Minister M.M.Kasyanov visits S.P.Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia

This afternoon Russian Federation Prime Minister M.M.Kasyanov visited
S.P.Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia, the prime Russian
company which designs, builds and tests space hardware and runs space
missions.The Prime Minister and his party were greeted by the President
of S.P.Korolev RSC Energia, Designer General, member of Russian Academy
of Sciences, Yu.P.Semenov. A meeting was held in the office of the Corporation
President between representatives of the Russian Federation Government
and the Rocket and Space Corporation management, where Yu.P.Semenov
told about the company’s history and its major current activities.

With great interest the high-ranking M. M. Kasyanov and his party toured
the company museum displaying samples of space hardware developed by
the Corporation; they also visited an exhibition of consumer goods manufactured
by the company and the check-out facility where manned and unmanned
spacecraft, space stations, upper stages, Yamal communications satellites,
that have been prepared for space flight, undergo integrated tests.

After the tour, a detailed discussion took place in the Corporation
President office about the current situation in the industry and at
the company. Reviewed were the issues of the International Space Station
Russian Segment development program, the state funding of the federal
space program (FSP), obtaining of extra-budgetary funds for FSP implementation
including the ISS program.

The delegation of the Russian Federation Government also visited the
Central Research Institute for Machine-building (TsNIIMash) and the
Mission Control Center (MCC) located on its premises.

The guests visited the main Mir control room. Then in the main control
room for the International Space Station (ISS) a communications session
with the ISS crew was held. During this session M.M.Kasyanov congratulated
the crew on 40-th anniversary of the Yu.Gagarin space flight and wished
them great successes in their mission and soft landing upon its completion.

The visit lasted more than three hours.