The state Corporation Roscosmos has expressed its readiness to cooperate with Tunisia in preparing for the flight into orbit of a female cosmonaut from this country. This was announced on Friday, August 13, the press service of Roscosmos reported.
On August 13, Dmitry Rogozin, Director General of Roscosmos, held a working meeting in Moscow with Mohammed Frikha, Director General of Telnet Holding in Tunisia, with the participation of Tarak ben Salem, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Tunisia to the Russian Federation.
"During the meeting, the parties discussed the prospects of Russian-Tunisian cooperation in the field of manned space flights, in particular, the intentions of the Tunisian side to train and launch a female cosmonaut into space," the press service of the state corporation said.
It is noted that following the meeting, a joint Memorandum of Understanding was signed on bilateral cooperation in the field of manned space flights.
Earlier in the day, Rogozin expressed the opinion that cosmonautics is needed not for individuals to escape from the planet, but to make life on Earth better. According to him, the goal of cosmonautics should be to ensure the connectedness of world cultures, the development of communications between continents and peoples, "humanity's understanding of its connectedness and a single destiny."
On June 26, Roscosmos announced that the only female cosmonaut in Russia, Anna Kikina, will go to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2022. In 2017, Kikina took part in the SIRIUS international experiment simulating a flight to the moon.
Before that, four Soviet and Russian women visited space: Valentina Tereshkova, Svetlana Savitskaya, Elena Kondakova and Elena Serova.
Earlier, on June 15, the head of NASA, Bill Nelson, said that during telephone conversations he discussed with the general director of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, cooperation between the United States and Russia in space. Nelson noted that in a telephone conversation with Rogozin, he asked to remember that despite the existing difficulties in relations between the two countries on Earth, they "work and live together in space."
