A Russian actress and a Russian director arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday. They are starting a twelve-day mission to make the first commercial movie in orbit. The Russia crew is set to beat a Hollywood project announced last year by Tom Cruise, NASA and SpaceX. Actress Ylia Peresild, 37, and film director Shipenko, 38, took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. It is located in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan and rented by Russia for space launches.
The pair docked at the ISS at 1222 GMT after Anton Shkaplerov, the captain of their spacecraft, switched to manual control. When the hatches opened, the Russian trio emerged into the ISS where they were greeted by two Russians, a Frenchman, a Japanese and three NASA astronauts. The film crew was welcomed by Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky.
The crew travelled to the ISS in a Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft to shoot scenes for “The Challenge”. The plot of the movie centers around a female surgeon who is dispatched to the ISS to save a cosmonaut. Shkaplerov and the two other Russian Cosmonauts have cameos in the film.
Konstantin Ernst is the head of the Kremlin-friendly Channel One TV network and a co-producer of the film. He spoke with the film crew as soon as they docked. He said, “They are in good spirits and feel well.”
Peresild was selected out of three thousand applicants for the role. At a pre-flight press conference, she said, “It was difficult psychologically, physically and emotionally... but I think when we reach our goal all the challenges won't seem so bad.”
Shipenko and Peresild are expecting to return to Earth around October 17th in a capsule with Novitsky who has been on the ISS for the past six months. Ernst said that a film crew will document their landing which will also be featured in the movie. If the mission is successful, it will add to a long list of first for the Russian Space industry.
The Soviet Union launched the first satellite, the first animal, the first man and the first woman into Earth orbit. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “Space is where we became pioneers, where despite everything we maintain a fairly confident position.”
The Russian space agency is still relying on Soviet-designed technology and has faced a number of setbacks, including corruption scandals and botched launches. Russia is also falling behind in the global race to explore and exploit space. It is facing stiff competition from the U.S. and China.
Roscosmos, the Russian space agency was dealt a blow after SpaceX last year successfully delivered astronauts to the ISS. This cost Russia its monopoly for journeys to the orbital station. For political analyst Konstntin Kalachev, the film being shot on the ISS is PR and a way to distract Russians from the “problems” that Roscosmos is facing. Kalachev said, “This is supposed to inspire Russians, show how cool we are, but I think Russians have completely lost interest in the space industry.”
In a bid to improve its image and diversify its revenue, Russia’s space program reveals this year that it will be reviving its tourism program to carry fee-paying adventurers to the ISS. Following a ten-year hiatus, Russia will launch two Japanese tourists to the ISS in December.
This year has been a milestone for amateur space travel. Last month, SpaceX completed the first all-civilian mission to space that took four untrained astronauts on a three-day loop around the Earth’s orbit. The trip followed Richard Branson’s few minutes of weightlessness in July. Amazon’s founder, Jeff Bezos, completed a similar mission a few days later. Later this month, ninety-year-old actor William Shatner, known for his portrayal of Captain Kirk in the Star Trek TV series, will fly into space on a mission with Bezos’s Blue Origin.