Russian Space Force Commander Visits US Facilities
Russia's Space Force commander has visited U.S. military space facilities at the invitation of his American counterpart, Russian news wire RIA Novosti reported said Thursday.
Gen. Vladimir Popovkin was invited by Gen. James E. Cartwright to visit Wanderberg USAF base in California, and Patrick and Cape Canaveral in Florida where Popovkin was taken around to see missile launch control centers, and Atlas and Titan missile silos, Alexei Kuznetsov said.
On his tour of Peterson and Shriver AFBs in Colorado, Popovkin was informed about the structure and tasks of the command.
Popovkin also visited the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, where he saw how students worked on micro- and nano-satellites Falcon-2 and Falcon-3, which are similar to Russia's Mozhayets spacecraft developed at the Mozhaisky military academy in St. Petersburg.
The concluding part of the visit was Popovkin's meeting with Edmund Giambastiani, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Administration, in the U.S. Department of Defense.
U.S. officials from the Strategic Command will make a return visit in April.
Copyright 2006 by Space Daily, Distributed United Press International
