Back to Earth: Soyuz capsule with Russian crew behind first space movie successfully lands in Kazakhstan

The return capsule carrying Russian actress Yulia Peresild and filmmaker Klim Shipenko, the first people to conduct location shooting for a movie in space, has successfully landed, the space agency Roscosmos has reported.

The Soyuz MS-18 spaceship piloted by cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky has delivered him and the two members of the pioneering film crew back from the International Space Station (ISS).

The capsule reentered the atmosphere and parachuted down in a remote region of Kazakhstan's steppe. The crew members are said to be in good condition after the touchdown.

The rescuers helped the trio out of the capsule. They will undergo a medical check before being flown from Kazakhstan to Moscow Region. A press conference with the Soyuz MS-19 crew is scheduled for Tuesday.

“We had a good landing. Everything happened in a routine manner,” Peresild told Channel 1 after returning to Earth.

However, the actress confessed that she was feeling “a bit sad” because “12 days initially seemed like a lot, but when it was all ending, I didn’t want to say goodbye.”

She also praised Novitsky, describing the cosmonaut as “great” and saying that “nothing is scary” when he’s around.

The landing was like “a rollercoaster ride,” Shipenko said after being retrieved from the capsule. “This whole flight was full of memorable moments and challenges that were very interesting to overcome,” the director said.

“I’ll need some time to process that all this actually happened to me,” he added.

Shipenko later revealed that filming on the ISS had turned out to be an “absolutely unique” professional experience for him. He personally did the job of a whole film crew, being the director, cameraman, and lighting technician. “I’ve learnt that I can make a movie on my own,” Shipenko laughed.

He brought back a whopping 30 terabytes of footage from orbit, and said the filming conditions provided on the ISS with actual zero gravity would have been absolutely impossible to recreate on a set either in Russia or Hollywood.

Peresild and Shipenko spent 12 days on board the ISS after traveling to it on the Soyuz MS-19 ship earlier this month. The duo worked on the film ‘The Challenge’, a feature-length drama produced by Russia's television Channel 1 in collaboration with Roscosmos.

The plot of the first movie ever shot in space involves a female medic who has to urgently travel to the International Space Station to treat a sick cosmonaut, who can’t be transported to Earth. It’s intended that the scenes filmed aboard the ISS will account for 30 to 40 minutes of the movie’s running time.

Peresild was chosen for the role from some 3,000 contenders. Shipenko and the actress underwent an accelerated training course to prepare them for orbit.

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