The Russians Are Coming- The Movie
Filming on Space Station is next step in commercialization
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October 3, 2021
It’s a first in space. A Russian film director and an actress are ready to blast off this week for the International Space Station. Accompanied by a cosmonaut, they will spend 12 days in weightlessness shooting scenes for the movie called, “Challenge.” The storyline is that a doctor is being sent to the station, with just one month to prepare, to save the life of a cosmonaut. Filming in space is nothing new. But this is the first movie to be shot in space.
The crew of Soyuz MS-19. (Credit: Roscosmos)
So, like the beginning of the space race, the Russians are first again. They are beating Hollywood to moviemaking in Zero-G. But this time NASA is promoting the mission. The US space agency will provide live coverage of the launch, docking, and the hatch opening. NASA says, “The launch will mark the expansion of commercial space opportunities to include feature filmmaking.” A Russian space agency tweet even gave some film flair to the mission with a wind-machine walk by the director and actress.
(Credit: Roscosmos)
The Russians put this mission together after the NASA Administrator said the US agency was working with actor Tom Cruise to make a movie on the space station. Cruise’s mission has been put off and has no launch date as of this writing.
This year commercialization of space has taken off after two decades of talk, planning, and building. We saw the sub-orbital flights of the billionaires Jeff Bezos and Sir Richard Branson. As summer came to an end, four civilians spent three days in orbit above the space station and the Hubble telescope in the fully-autonomous Space X Dragon spacecraft.
(Credit: Roscosmos)
Now it is the Russians sending civilians, director Klim Shipenko and actress Yulia Peresild, to the space station. While making a movie is a first, this is not the first time Russia has sent non-cosmonauts to space. The Russians started this trend n 1990 hosting their first paying customer, a Japanese journalist, on the Mir space station. "Space Tourists" started riding the Soyuz in 2001.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos says on its website, this is just the beginning. “The project will show that spaceflights are gradually becoming available not only for professionals, but also for a wider range of people.” In a bit of art imitating life, Roscosmos suggests this commercialization could send actual doctors to orbit. “For example, similar accelerated training of film cast will be needed in the future to send other specialists to orbit, including doctors and scientists,” the statement said.
(Credit: Roscosmos)
The Russians have documented the “accelerated training” for the film crew by showing suit fittings and the traditional tree planting cosmonauts complete before flight.
Actress Peresild was asked if she is worried about the flight. According to Reuters she said, “It is a bit too late to be afraid because we've come so far... to be honest, there is just no time left for fear."
Actor Tom Cruise at NASA's Johnson Space Center 2002. (Credit: NASA-Sharon McDougle)
While NASA will be watching (as well as Tom Cruise) there are plans for more of these missions by both space agencies. NASA calls them Private Astronaut Missions (PAMs). The agency plans two year. It has already set the price for accommodations if you want to figure out if you can afford a flight.
NASA is also preparing the space station to host these non-astronauts. A new module will be added to the station at a cost of not more than $140 million.
Artist rendition of commercial module to be added to the International Space Station.(Credit: Axiom Space)
This is the commercialization space which was envisioned nearly two decades ago. Not only are The Russians Coming, a lot of civilians will be going to space too.