On Tuesday, a Russian actor and director landed at the International Space Station (ISS) to film the film ‘The Challenge’ in space. With this, the crew is on track to outperform a Hollywood initiative unveiled last year by ‘Mission Impossible’ actor Tom Cruise in collaboration with Nasa and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The premise of the film, which has been primarily kept under wraps, as has its funding, has been disclosed by Roscosmos to revolve around a female surgeon who is sent to the ISS to save a cosmonaut.
Shkaplerov and two other Russian cosmonauts aboard the ISS are supposed to appear in the film as extras.
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the mission will assist in demonstrate Russia’s space supremacy. “Such missions that assist publicize our accomplishments and space exploration, in general, are beneficial to the country.”
According to the Hindustan Times, actress Yulia Peresild, 37, and film director Klim Shipenko, 38, took off on time from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan.
After veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov shifted to manual control, they docked to the ISS at 5.52 p.m. IST. “Welcome to the International Space Station!” Roscosmos, Russia’s space agency, announced the news on Twitter.
“Everything was new to us today, every 30 seconds brought something completely new,” Yulia said through an interpreter during a brief video conference from the Russian Zvezda module, according to CBS News.
“We’ve only recently met the rest of the crew, the cosmonauts and astronauts who have been living on board the station for quite some time. But I’m still dreaming.”
The crew flew to the International Space Station in a Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft for a 12-day mission to film scenes for ‘The Challenge.’
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, the mission will assist in demonstrate Russia’s space supremacy. “Such missions that assist publicize our accomplishments and space exploration, in general, are beneficial to the country.”