The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft carrying the Russian film crew approaches the International Space Station. (Image Credit: NASA)
Tom Cruise got all the headlines for potentially filming a movie on the ISS. It seems he was beat to the punch. But I wonder if it will even be that noticeable vs. Hollywood effects. Nevertheless, this is a whole new industry… real space-based films. I suspect that the civilian passenger space flights will become a coveted location. But, what happened on the first such filming event?
On October 5th, Russia’s Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:55 a.m. EDT time to the International Space Station with three Russian crewmates aboard. The Soyuz successfully docked with Russia’s Rassvet mini-research module at 8:22 a.m. EDT. However, Anton Shkaplerov manually docked the spacecraft due to technical difficulties.
The three crewmates, actress Yulia Peresild, producer Klim Shipenko, and veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, had one goal in mind: shooting the first feature film called Challenge in space. The plot revolves around a Russian cosmonaut who suffered a cardiac arrest on the ISS during a spacewalk. As a result, he needs immediate surgery to survive the journey back to Earth, which is why the movie features a surgeon who launches to the ISS.
After a delay, the Soyuz spacecraft successfully docked. (Image Credit: NASA)
The Soyuz spacecraft experienced a docking delay because the automatic Kurs docking system failed, forcing Shkaplerov to switch to manual control. Under normal circumstances, the commander would rely on a flight engineer for assistance, but both colleagues would’ve been unable to help him regardless of their fast-track flight training. The hatch connecting the Soyuz to the ISS eventually opened, allowing the crew members to join the seven other crew members already onboard the ISS.
However, the filming was met with a delay due to the ISS unexpectedly tilting out of position on Friday morning while Oleg Novitsky conducted engine tests on Soyuz, causing the thrusters to fire aggressively. The exact cause behind this remains unclear, but NASA instructed its astronauts to follow emergency procedures.
Later on, Russia’s space agency said that the station’s position temporarily changed but quickly recovered and that it didn’t pose a danger to anyone onboard.
Both Shipenko and Peressild departed the ISS, landing in Kazakhstan, where they were met by a crew filming touchdown scenes. The module carrying the crew parachuted to Earth around noon on Sunday.
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