Moscow: There have been multiple space missions undertaken by several countries. But this one is super special.
Russia is set to launch an actress and a film director into space to make a feature film in orbit — something which has not been tried before.
Yulia Peresild, director Klim Shipenko and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov — a veteran of three space missions — are scheduled to be launched into space on Tuesday from International Space Station in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
The trio is scheduled to return to earth after spending 12 days on the space outpost.
Titled ‘Challenge’, the feature film is about a surgeon summoned on an SoS to the space station to save a crew member who develops a heart condition. The crew plans to film some segments of the movie in space.
The actress described the training for the mission as ‘gruelling’ but a ‘once-in-a-lifetime opportunity’.
“It’s a miracle, an incredible chance… We worked really hard and we are really tired, even though we stay in good spirits and smile. It was psychologically, physically and morally hard. But I think that once we achieve the goal, all that will seem not so difficult and we will remember it with a smile,” the 37-year-old Peresild remarked.
Director Shipenko is thrilled to be the first filmmaker in space and is keen to experiment with lighting, camera settings and other technical aspects.
Among Shipenko’s several commercially successful movies is Salyut-7, the real story of a challenging 1985 mission of two Soviet cosmonauts sent to resuscitate an abandoned space station. But that wasn’t shot in space.
