"I have just come from talks with Roskosmos head Anatoly Perminov where we discussed a possible increase of cooperation between the European Space Agency and Roskosmos," said Germany's Minister of Education and Research Edelgard Bulmahn, who was present at the opening ceremony of the center.
According to Ms. Bulmahn, these talks have already produced initial concrete results.
"We discussed joint developments in devising rocket-space systems, but we will pay particular attention to joint scientific work, specifically on the International Space Station," she said.
The unique scientific experiment "Plasma Crystal," which is scheduled to be completed in orbit Tuesday, became a major trend of the center's work.
The current ISS crewmen - Salizhan Sharipov and Leroy Chiao - have the honor of summarizing some of the "space results" from the highly important scientific program that began aboard the since-decommissioned Mir Space Station.
The purpose of the Plasma Crystal experiment was to study plasma-dust structures in gas-discharged plasma with a high-frequency capacitance discharge, as well as in the plasma of a smoldering direct-current discharge.
According to foreign scientists, the results of this experiment are worthy of a Nobel Prize.
