JAKARTA – The Russian space agency Roscosmos’ Soyuz spacecraft will soon bring a cosmonaut, film director and actor to the International Space Station (ISS) today.
The goal, to make a film directly in space. The three crew members will take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:55 a.m. EDT.
On board will be cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran of three long-duration space flights who will spend a few more months on the ISS, along with film director Klim Shipenko and actor Yulia Peresild.
Shipenko and Peresild are expected to spend 12 days in orbit making the fictional film “The Challenge”. The story follows a doctor who flies to the ISS on short notice to provide life-saving treatment to a cosmonaut.
Russia is trying to make their first film in space, and is changing its flight schedule to precede NASA and SpaceX plans to support the launch of the action film Tom Cruise in orbit. Meanwhile, the Cruise film, which was first announced in 2020, has yet to reveal a release date at all.
Peresild said that before carrying out a mission to the ISS, he and Shipenko received basic emergency training such as how to wash hair, drink fluids, and use the bathroom. He said they were also given bags just in case they threw up. Peresild hoped that the weightless space would be good for them.
Peresild admits one of the hardest parts of his training so far has been reconciling his two roles. As an actor, he has to be emotional. But cosmonauts have to focus. They have also made careful planning to do their job without a film crew.
In the process of making the film, Peresild will do her own makeup, and the director will prepare all the lighting and sound. Neither of the two has had any professional spaceflight experience beyond their basic training at Roscosmos.
Peresild is best known in Russia for his work in films, art films, television series, and his performances at the Malaya Bronnaya theater in Moscow. Roscosmos’ official website for “The Challenge” says the film is part of a joint scientific and educational project with Channel One, Roscosmos and a studio called Yellow, Black and White.
Roscosmos described the film as a project meant to show increasing advances in spaceflight to people who are not professional astronauts, but are being worked on by national agencies.
The mission, officially dubbed Soyuz MS-19, was the latest in a series of non-professional spacecraft launches, and took place during the second half of the year.
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