On 29 May 2009, Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, visited the Russian Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow, Russia, where she spoke with the Mars500 crew inside the special isolation facility. The crew of six, including two ESA-selected crewmembers Cyrille Fournier and Oliver Knickel, are currently just over halfway through a 105-day simulated Mars mission inside the facility.

Left to right: Robert Veldhuyzen (ESA), Simonetta Di Pippo, ESA Director of Human Spaceflight, Martin Zell, ESA Head of ISS Utilisation Department in the Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Oleg Orlov, IBMP Deputy Director