After spending 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS) filming scenes for the first movie in space, a Russian actress and a film director returned to Earth on Sunday.
According to footage streamed live by the Russian space agency, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko landed on Kazakhstan’s steppe at 0436 GMT, as scheduled.
They were landed on Earth by cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, who had spent the previous six months in the space station.
Their landing, which was documented by a film crew, will also feature in the movie.
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“The crewed spacecraft Soyuz MS-18’s descent vehicle is standing upright and secure. The crew is in good spirits!” Roscosmos, the Russian space agency tweeted.
The filmmakers had taken off from the Russia-leased Baikonur Cosmodrome in ex-Soviet Kazakhstan earlier this month to film scenes for “The Challenge” movie on the International Space Station with experienced cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
If the project stays on schedule, the Russian team will surpass a Hollywood initiative announced last year by Tom Cruise of “Mission Impossible” with NASA, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX.
The storyline of the film, which has been kept mostly under wraps along with its budget, revolves around a physician who is sent to the International Space Station to save a cosmonaut.
Shkaplerov, 49, is claimed to appear in the movie with two Russian cosmonauts who were already aboard the ISS.
There were a few minor difficulties throughout the expedition.
Shkaplerov had to switch to manual control when the film team docked at the ISS earlier this month.
And, according to a NASA spokesperson, when Russian flight controllers conducted a test on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft on Friday, the ship’s thruster suddenly fired, destabilizing the ISS for 30 minutes.
However, the official verified that their departure would take place as planned.
