Roscosmos CEO Rogozin rules out possible meeting with NASA administrator

MOSCOW. April 11 (Interfax) - A meeting with NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, which was previously postponed several times due to coronavirus-related restrictions, will not take place, Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin said.

"Despite my numerous invitations, I myself have not met with Bill Nelson, who has held this post for a year. Possibly due to age-related reasons, he was afraid of contracting the disease during the pandemic, which is why he never came to Russia. And he definitely will not be coming now," Rogozin said in an interview with the Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper.

Roscosmos Deputy CEO for International Cooperation Sergei Savelyev said on December 3, 2021, that Nelson was expected to visit Moscow in the first half of 2022.

Savelyev told Interfax then that Rogozin and Nelson would discuss the resumption of cross-flights and further cooperation as part of the International Space Station (ISS) during their one-on-one meeting in Russia.

NASA ISS Program Manager Joel Montalbano said on December 21, 2021, that Rogozin and Nelson wanted to meet in Moscow in person to hold talks on extending the agreement on ISS operations and to sign an agreement on cross-flights, adding that a date for their talks would be set later.