He was the director of operations for NASA at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center (GCTC) in Star City, Russia from 2001 until 2003. Some of his duties included co-ordination and direction of all International Space Station crew activities in Russia, oversight of training and crew support staff, as well as policy negotiation with the Russian Space Program and other International Partners. He also trained and became fully qualified to be a flight engineer cosmonaut in the Soyuz TMA spacecraft, and to perform spacewalks in the Russian Orlan spacesuit.