A Russian film director and actor, plus their backups, have passed preflight medical tests for an October launch to the International Space Station to shoot scenes for a movie dubbed "Challenge."
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, had previously announced that it was working with Channel One and the film studio Yellow, Black and White on a movie to be shot partially in space. The project opened a competition last year for women interested in a starring role in the film, which would be directed by Klim Shipenko, who would also launch for the filming.
The project has selected actor Yulia Peresild to join Shipenko in the prime crew, according to a Roscosmos statement published Thursday (May 13). Actor Alena Mordovina and cinematographer Alexey Dudin will serve as backup crew members. Peresild and Shipenko (or Mordovina and Dudin, if it works out that way) will launch toward the station with a Roscosmos cosmonaut on Russia's three-seat Soyuz spacecraft.
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The crew will begin training for spaceflight at Roscosmos' Star City facility by June 1, the agency said. Training will be filmed by Channel One and will include centrifuge tests, vibration stand tests, zero-gravity flights and parachute training.
Roscosmos noted that one applicant to the "Challenge" competition, a pilot named Galina Kairova, while not selected for the film, was invited to continue the application process to join the cosmonaut corps professionally. Roscosmos most recently selected four new cosmonaut candidates in January 2021 after an 18-month selection process.
The Challenge flight is one of two Soyuz launches late this year that will carry non-cosmonauts to the space station. In December, Yusaku Maezawa, a Japanese entrepreneur, will spend nearly two weeks in orbit, joined by Yozo Hirano, who will film the experience. Maezawa already has another spaceflight booked: He is scheduled to fly around the moon aboard a SpaceX Starship in 2023.
Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin will join Maezawa and Hirano on the flight, which will last 12 days, according to Roscosmos. The crew will begin training for the mission in June. Maezawa booked the flight through Space Adventures, which last flew a tourist to the space station aboard a Soyuz capsule in 2009.
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