Roscosmos to send film crew to space for first feature film
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Moscow is seeking to boost its embattled space programme, which has stagnated since the Soviet Union under corruption and been overtaken by US tech billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX
Russia said Thursday it would send an actress and a director to space to make the first feature film in the cosmos.
Moscow is seeking to boost its embattled space programme, which has stagnated since the Soviet Union under corruption and been overtaken by US tech billionaire Elon Musk's company SpaceX.
The Russian space agency announced the film project Thursday after NASA confirmed last year it was teaming up with US actor Tom Cruise to make a movie on the ISS.
The Russian "space drama", whose working title is "Challenge," will feature popular Russian actress Yulia Peresild, 36, and Klim Shipenko, a 37-year-old director and actor, Roscosmos said.
They will have to undergo training, including tests on a centrifuge and flights in zero gravity, starting no later than June 1.
The film is being co-produced by the flamboyant head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, and state-run network Channel One.
Also read| Japanese billionaire entrepreneur Yusaku Maezawa to travel to International Space Station
The space agency also announced plans to take Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to the ISS in December, resurecting its space tourism programme in the face of US competition.
Maezawa, 45, who made his fortune in online retail, said he planned to document the mission and share it with the world on his YouTube channel with over 700,000 subscribers.
Roscosmos said Maezawa would make the flight from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan with production assistant Yozo Hirano aboard a Soyuz MS-20 spacecraft that is scheduled for December 8.
"I'm so curious 'What's life like in space?' So, I am planning to find out on my own and share with the world on my YouTube channel," Maezawa was quoted as saying by Roscosmos.
The eccentric billionaire has previously announced plans to take eight people with him on a 2023 mission around the moon aboard a Starship spacecraft built by Musk's SpaceX.
Maezawa and film producer Hirano will begin approximately three months of pre-flight training in June at the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Star City outside of Moscow, Roscosmos added.
They have already passed the required medical examinations, it said.
Roscosmos said the flight will last 12 days and the crew will be led by Cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, who has already been on two missions to the ISS.
A total of eight private self-funded space travellers have visited the ISS and Maezawa will be the first from Japan.
His flight will also be the first time that two of the three spots on a Soyuz space rocket will be occupied by tourists.
"We are excited for Maezawa-san and we are honoured to have enabled this opportunity for him to fly to space," said Eric Anderson, CEO of Space Adventures, a private spaceflight company.
It has cooperated with Roscosmos since the first space tourist flight in 2001.
Maezawa will be the first space tourist to travel to the ISS since 2009 when Canadian Guy Laliberte, co-founder of Cirque du Soleil, travelled to the station.
According to Forbes magazine, space tourists could pay anywhere between $20 million and $35 million per person for 8-12 days in space. The cost of Maezawa's flight has not been disclosed.
The resumption of tourist flights comes after Roscosmos lost its monopoly on ferrying crews to the ISS when a reusable SpaceX rocket last year successfully delivered NASA astronauts to space.
Russia's space industry has suffered a number of setbacks in recent years, from corruption scandals to lost spacecraft to an aborted take-off during a manned mission in 2018.
Russia's ageing Soyuz rockets are reliable and allow Moscow to remain relevant in the modern space industry, but the country is struggling to innovate and keep up with other key players.
Russia launched the first artificial satellite on October 4, 1957. The Soviets maintained their lead in the initial years of the race.
They boasted the first manned flight to space by Gagarin on April 12, 1961, the first spacewalk four years later by Alexei Leonov and the first lunar probe in 1966. But the United States beat them to the moon with the first manned landing in 1969.
(With inputs from agencies)