Roscosmos: Russian, Chinese cosmonauts may exchange visits in orbit
ZHUHAI (China). Nov 12 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian cosmonauts may eventually visit the Chinese space station Tiangong-1 and their Chinese colleagues may come to the International Space Station (ISS), Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) chief Oleg Ostapenko said at Airshow China 2014 in Zhuhai.
"As to possible manned space program projects, China has an interest in doing so and they have expressed their interest to us. That was confirmed at the negotiations we held earlier today," Ostapenko said.
The possibility has been informally discussed with Russian specialists, as well, he said.
"I do not rule out the possibility that in the context of broadening cooperation with China we might consider a visit by our cosmonauts to the Chinese station and at some point welcome Chinese taikonauts [a hybrid of the Chinese term taikong (space) and the Greek naut (sailor)] to our segment of the ISS," the Roscosmos head continued.
Russia is implementing the ISS project together with its partners - the United States, the European Space Agency, Japan and China.
