DMITRY KOLESNIKOV WRITES – Russia is getting ready to film the first ever movie in space.
On October 5th, 2021 famous Russian actress Yulia Peresild, film producer Klim Shipenko and experienced astronaut Anton Shkaplerov traveled to the International Space Station in pursuit to film the first ever movie in space called “Challenge”.
Three space travelers left the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 4:55 a.m. on a Soyuz MS-19 rocket.
Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko are expected to stay on ISS for 12 days before leaving back to earth. Anton Shkaplerov however will remain on board until spring conducting research for Roscosmos – the biggest Russian space corporation. This does not mean that he will not take any part in the production. Anton Shkaplerov alongside cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov will play minor roles in the movie and help with the set organization.
The movie tells a story of a surgeon, played by Yulia Peresild, who has to operate on a cosmonaut who got extremely sick on the Space Station and certain conditions were restricting him from coming back to Earth for treatment.
It is crucial to highlight remarkable work done by governments and private companies to expand access to space for people without astronaut qualifications. The attempt to film a movie in space is another step towards making space travel more available for future generations. Until a couple of years ago governments were very carefully selecting people competent enough to leave Earth’s orbit, but it is very likely that we will see more and more unqualified people going to space in the future. Nasa stated: “The launch will mark the expansion of commercial space opportunities to include feature filmmaking.”
Last year Tom Cruise and director Doug Liman announced they are working on a movie that will be set in space. It was reported that the movie will be filmed in partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX and that production might start as soon. For now, Russia is on track to becoming the first nation to release a feature-length film with real shots from space.
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