In the early 1960s the Second Laboratory Building of the Institute of Physiology was opened. It houses several laboratories of the Space Biology and Physiology Sector. The laboratories of the Sector studied the mechanisms of speech and recognition of visual images, the physiology of the vestibular and auditory systems, gas and heat exchange, etc.

The achievements of the Institute in these areas were presented at the Second International Symposium on the Basic Problems of Human Life in Outer Space in 1965 in Paris.

Within the framework of the International Program "Interkosmos" the Institute participated in the study of the influence on the organism of space flight factors and in the development of ways to reduce their negative impact for the successful work of spacecraft crews in orbit.

Academician Alexander Mikhailovich Ugolev has been a leading consultant on nutritional problems for astronauts since the late 1960s and participated in the creation of food rations. From a physiological point of view he analyzed the problem of using artificial food for astronauts in extreme conditions. In addition, Ugolev was a member of the commission for the selection of monkeys that will go into space.

In 1990, Koltushi was visited by Professor Selina Ahmed, then the chief nutritionist of NASA. She got acquainted with the research of Ugolev’s nutrition physiology laboratory, and spoke about NASA’s development of food rations for astronauts. She brought with her a bulky box with a two-week supply of food for one astronaut. It was decided to keep the box carefully in the refrigerator. But at the end of 1991, during the food crisis, the food set was distributed equally to the laboratory staff as a New Year’s gift.