Russian film crew blasts off to make first movie in space

MOSCOW – A Russian histrion and a movie manager rocketed to abstraction Tuesday connected a ngo to marque the world’s archetypal movie successful orbit.

Actor Yulia Peresild and manager Klim Shipenko blasted disconnected for the International Space Station successful a Russian Soyuz spacecraft unneurotic with cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, a seasoned of 3 abstraction missions. Their Soyuz MS-19 lifted disconnected arsenic scheduled astatine 1:55 p.m. (0855 GMT) from the Russian abstraction motorboat installation successful Baikonur, Kazakhstan and arrived astatine the presumption aft astir 3½ hours.

Shkaplerov took manual controls to smoothly dock the spacecraft astatine the abstraction outpost aft a glitch successful an automatic docking system.

Space officials reported that the unit was feeling good and spacecraft systems were functioning normally.

Peresild and Klimenko are to movie segments of a caller movie titled “Challenge,” successful which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the abstraction presumption to prevention a unit subordinate who suffers a bosom condition. After 12 days connected the abstraction outpost, they are acceptable to instrumentality to Earth with different Russian cosmonaut.

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Speaking astatine a pre-flight quality league Monday, 37-year-old Peresild acknowledged that it was challenging for her to accommodate to the strict subject and rigorous demands during the training.

“It was psychologically, physically and morally hard,” she said. “But I deliberation that erstwhile we execute the goal, each that volition look not truthful hard and we volition retrieve it with a smile.”

Shipenko, 38, who has made respective commercially palmy movies, besides described their fast-track, four-month mentation for the formation arsenic tough.

“Of course, we couldn’t marque galore things astatine the archetypal try, and sometimes adjacent astatine a 3rd attempt, but it’s normal,” helium said.

Shipenko, who volition implicit the shooting connected Earth aft filming abstraction episodes, said that Shkaplerov and 2 different Russian cosmonauts connected committee the presumption volition each play parts successful the caller movie.

Russia's state-controlled Channel One television, which is progressive successful making the movie, has extensively covered the unit grooming and the launch.

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“I'm successful shock. I inactive can't ideate that my ma is retired there,” Peresild's daughter, Anna, said successful televised remarks minutes aft the launch.

Dmitry Rogozin, caput of the Russian authorities abstraction corp Roscosmos, was a cardinal unit down the project, describing it arsenic a accidental to burnish the nation’s abstraction glory and rejecting disapproval from immoderate Russian media.

Some commentators argued that the movie task would distract the Russian unit and could beryllium awkward to movie connected the Russian conception of the International Space Station, which is considerably little spacious compared to the U.S. segment. A caller Russia laboratory module, the Nauka, was added successful July, but it is yet to beryllium afloat integrated into the station.

Once they get astatine the abstraction presumption conscionable implicit 3 hours aft the launch, the 3 newcomers volition articulation Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency, NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov and Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

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Novitskiy, who is acceptable to prima arsenic the ailing cosmonaut successful the film, volition instrumentality the captain’s spot successful a Soyuz capsule to instrumentality the unit backmost to Earth connected Oct. 17.

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