After 12 days on the space outpost, they’re set to return to Earth with one other Russian cosmonaut.
A Russian actor and a film director rocketed to space Tuesday on a mission to make the world’s first movie in orbit, a venture the Kremlin mentioned will assist burnish the nation’s space glory.
Actor Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko blasted off for the International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft along with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a veteran of three space missions. Their Soyuz MS-19 lifted off as scheduled at 1:55 p.m. (0855 GMT) from the Russian space launch facility in Baikonur, Kazakhstan and arrived on the station after about 3½ hours.
Shkaplerov took guide controls to easily dock the spacecraft on the space outpost after a glitch in an automated docking system.
The trio reported they have been feeling wonderful and spacecraft methods have been functioning usually.
Peresild and Klimenko are to film segments of a brand new movie titled “Challenge,” in which a surgeon performed by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who suffers a coronary heart situation. After 12 days on the space outpost, they’re set to return to Earth with one other Russian cosmonaut.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov mentioned the mission will assist showcase Russia’s space prowess.
“We have been pioneers in space and maintained a confident position,” Peskov mentioned. “Such missions that help advertise our achievements and space exploration in general are great for the country.” Speaking at a pre-flight information convention Monday, 37-year-old Peresild acknowledged that it was difficult for her to adapt to the strict self-discipline and rigorous calls for in the course of the coaching.
“It was psychologically, physically and morally hard,” she mentioned. “But I think that once we achieve the goal, all that will seem not so difficult and we will remember it with a smile.” Shipenko, 38, who has made a number of commercially profitable films, additionally described their fast-track, four-month preparation for the flight as robust.
“Of course, we couldn’t make many things at the first try, and sometimes even at a third attempt, but it’s normal,” he mentioned.
In this handout picture launched by Roscosmos Space Agency, actress Yulia Peresild, centre, film director Klim Shipenko, above, and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov wave prior to the launch to the International Space Station, ISS, on the Russian leased Baikonur cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021.
| Photo Credit: AP
Shipenko, who will full the capturing on Earth after filming the movie’s space episodes, mentioned Shkaplerov and two different Russian cosmonauts now on board the station — Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov — will all play elements in the brand new movie.
Russia’s state-controlled Channel One tv, which is concerned in making the movie, has extensively coated the crew coaching and the launch.
“I’m in shock. I still can’t imagine that my mom is out there,” Peresild’s daughter, Anna, mentioned in televised remarks minutes after the launch.
Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian state space company Roscosmos, was a key pressure behind the venture, describing it as an opportunity to burnish the nation’s space glory and rejecting criticism from some Russian media.
Some commentators argued that the film venture would distract the Russian crew and may very well be awkward to film on the Russian phase of the International Space Station, which is significantly much less spacious in contrast to the U.S. phase. A brand new Russia lab module, the Nauka, was added in July, however it’s but to be totally built-in into the station.
On the space station, the three newcomers be a part of Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency; NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Roscosmos cosmonauts Novitskiy and Dubrov; and Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.
Novitskiy, who will star because the ailing cosmonaut in the film, will take the captain’s seat in a Soyuz capsule to take the film crew again to Earth on October 17.
