Superstar Russian actress blasts off to ISS to make world’s 1st space movie

A RUSSIAN actress lifted off for the International Space Station (ISS) on Tuesday shoot the first movie in outer space.

Alongside two cosmonauts and a film director, Yulia Peresild, 37, launched on a Soyuz MS-19 craft to be delivered to the station, which orbits Earth at an altitude of around 220 miles (354km).

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Peresild and director Klim Shipenko, 38, took off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 9.55am UK time (04:55am ET), footage broadcast by Russian TV showed.

They reached near-Earth orbit around ten minutes later. The crew are expected to dock with the space station at 1:12pm UK time.

Led by veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, they’re travelling in a Soyuz MS-19 spaceship for a 12-day mission at the International Space Station (ISS) to film scenes for The Challenge.

The movie’s plot, which has been mostly kept under wraps along with its budget, was revealed by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos to centre around a female surgeon who is dispatched to the ISS to save an astronaut.

Clad in a flight suit, director Shipenko called the film “an experiment” at an online press conference on Monday.

“Some things will work out and some things won’t,” he conceded.

Shipenko and Peresild are expected to return to Earth on 17 October in a capsule with cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, who has been on the ISS for the past six months.

They have spent weeks undergoing training, including tests on a centrifuge and flights in zero gravity.

SPACE RACE

The launch came just weeks after that of the first all-civilian crew riding aboard a rocket and capsule developed by SpaceX.

That adds an element of decades-long Russia-United States competition to the flight. Tom Cruise plans to film his own movie in space later this month.

“This movie is built around a story of an ordinary person… a doctor who had nothing to do with space exploration and never thought about it is offered to travel to the ISS… and save a cosmonaut’s life,” director and actor Klim Shipenko told a news conference last month.

The professional cosmonauts in the crew will also be seen in the movie.

“I won’t be starring in it but still I will need to figure out how a movie is produced in such an unusual place as outer space,” said commander Anton Shkaplerov.

Lead actress Yulia Peresild said she has learned how to be her own make-up artist and costume designer.

“It will not be on the same level as on Earth, but we will do our best. We are ready for it,” she said.

“It is a bit too late to be afraid because we’ve come so far, there is Baikonur ahead and a lot of things (to do) and to be honest, there is just no time left for fear.”

Director Shipenko, who is 1.9 metres (6 feet 2 inches) tall, said his height makes training inside the spacecraft – and the upcoming trip – not very comfortable.

But accommodations will be made in the future, he said, adding: “It is okay. I will fly now as it is, but when we do the sequel about travel to Mars, then they promise there will be a better seat.”

RUSSIAN CASH GRAB

Russian space agency Roscosmos announced the project in May.

The “space drama” is being co-produced by the flamboyant head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, and state-run network Channel One.

The launch comes at a challenging time for Russia’s space industry, which is struggling to secure state funding as the Kremlin prioritises military spending.

Compared to the Soviet era – when Moscow launched the first satellite Sputnik and sent the first man, Yuri Gagarin, into space – Russia has struggled to innovate.

The country’s space agency is still reliant 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 space race, facing tough competition from the United States and China, with Beijing showing growing ambitions in the industry.

Roscosmos was also dealt a blow after SpaceX last year successfully delivered astronauts to the ISS, costing Russia its monopoly for journeys to the orbital station.

But for political analyst Konstantin Kalachev, the space film is a matter of PR and a way to “distract” Russians from the “problems” that Roscosmos is facing.

“This is supposed to inspire Russians, show how cool we are, but I think Russians have completely lost interest in the space industry,” Kalachev said.

In a bid to spruce up its image and diversify its revenue, Russia revealed this year it would be reviving its space tourism program to ferry fee-paying adventurers to the ISS.

After a decade-long pause, Russia will send two Japanese tourists – including billionaire Yusaku Maezawa – to the ISS in December, capping a year that has been a milestone for amateur space travel.

USA BEHIND

Last month, SpaceX completed the first all-civilian mission to space, taking four untrained astronauts on a three-day loop around the Earth’s orbit.

The trip followed the missions of billionaire Richard Branson, who spent several minutes in weightlessness in July, and of Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos, who completed a similar mission just days later.

Cruise, 58, is to film his own project on the station sometime in October after travelling there on a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.

The Mission Impossible star, who’s known for performing many of his own stunts, will be joined by 55-year-old director Doug Liman.

Further details are being kept tightly under wraps, although it’s understood that Liman has written a draft screenplay for the project.

Nasa announced the money-making scheme last year, and it appears that Roscosmos are trying to beat them to it.

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In other news, three entirely new lifeforms were recently discovered at different locations onboard the International Space Station.

Nasa has announced that it is accepting applications for wannabe space explorers who wish to fire their names to the Red Planet.

And, the Perseverance Mars rover has revealed stunning video and audio recordings from the surface of the Red Planet.

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