The Russian Soyuz spacecraft successfully landed in a steppe area in western Kazakhstan at exactly 10:35 a.m. on October 17 (Kazakhstan time). The Russian Space Agency in Kazakhstan filmed the entire scene of welcoming the film crew and broadcast it live on television.
Earlier, on October 5, a three-person film crew including actress Yulia Peresild, director Klim Shipenko and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov departed from the Baikonur Cosmodrome and headed to the International Space Station (ISS) to film scenes for the first film in space, called The Challenge. The plot of the film has not been revealed much, but the main content revolves around a surgeon sent to the ISS to save an astronaut.
All three had to attend a training course before departing on October 5.
"I feel a little sad today. Maybe 12 days was a long enough time, the trip is finally over, but I don't want to say goodbye to the astronauts," actress Peresild told Russia's Channel One after landing.
After this journey, Yulia Peresild also became the first actress to show off her acting skills in space.
Yulia Peresild is taken off the ship after landing on the ground.
Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, along with two other Russian cosmonauts on the ISS, are said to have made cameos in the film The Challenge. This is the first time cosmonauts have performed a job other than their daily duties. After 12 days of filming, Anton Shkaplerov will continue his mission at the ISS and will be replaced by another cosmonaut, Oleg Novitskiy, who will return to Earth with Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko.
Yulia Peresild, Oleg Novitskiy and Klim Shipenko (from left to right) after returning safely to Earth.
The film was shot under a commercial agreement between the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) and Moscow-based media companies Channel One and Yellow, Black and White. Channel One head Konstantin Ernst said the film crew's landing scene would also be featured in The Challenge.
Images of the film crew and three astronauts were captured during filming in space.
Russia is one of the leading countries in the space race, currently competing fiercely with two major rivals, the US and China.
Last year, Moscow’s monopoly on trips to the space station was broken after Elon Musk’s SpaceX successfully launched American astronauts to the ISS. However, if The Challenge goes according to plan, Russia will beat Tom Cruise and SpaceX, NASA’s first Hollywood action film in space, to production in early 2020.
Russian media also revealed that they will revive tourism plans to send paying tourists to explore the ISS. After a decade of suspension, Russia will send two Japanese tourists, including billionaire Yusaku Maezawa, to the ISS in December, marking an important milestone for the country's space tourism industry.
