MOSCOW, October 2 (RIA Novosti) - New NASA chief Charles F. Bolden will arrive on Friday at Russia's Mission Control to watch a Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft dock with the ISS and hold talks with Russian space agency Roscosmos head Anatoly Perminov, Roscosmos said.
"Talks on all spheres of joint space activity by Roscosmos and NASA will be held. Anatoly Perminov and Charles Bolden will also jointly watch the docking scheduled for Friday 12:35 p.m. Moscow time," Roscosmos spokesman Alexander Vorobyov said.
Bolden, confirmed as NASA Administrator by the Senate in mid-July, is the first African American to head the agency. The visit to Russia is his first foreign trip as new NASA head.
Three new crewmembers on board a Soyuz TMA-16 spacecraft successfully blasted off for the International Space Station from Baikonur, Kazakhstan on Wednesday.
The new crew consists of expedition commander U.S. astronaut Jeffrey Williams, Russian flight engineer Maxim Surayev, and space tourist Canadian billionaire Guy Laliberte, founder of the Cirque du Soleil.