posted 10-04-2021 07:45 PM               

Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, film crew poised for launch

Soyuz MS-19 commander Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, together with actress Yulia Peresild and producer Klim Shipenko, are set to launch to the International Space Station on Tuesday (Oct. 5) at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT or 1:55 p.m. local time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

The Soyuz is scheduled to dock to the station's Rassvet mini-research module at about 8:12 a.m. EDT (1212 GMT) the same day, after a two-orbit rendezvous.

About two hours after docking, the hatches between the Soyuz and the space station will open and Shkaplerov, Peresild and Shipenko will be greeted by Expedition 65 commander Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency (ESA); NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov of Roscosmos.

Peresild and Shipenko will spend 12 days on the space station, filming segments for a movie titled "Challenge" under a commercial agreement between Roscosmos and Moscow-based media entities. Peresild and Shipenko will then return to Earth with Novitskiy on Oct. 16 (Oct. 17 Kazakhstan time) on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft.

On Friday (Oct. 1), the Soyuz-2.1a rocket topped with the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft was rolled out to Pad 31/6 by train and erected into position.

posted 10-05-2021 04:10 AM               

3, 2, 1... action! Russia launches film crew to shoot movie in space

A Russian cosmonaut who suffered a cardiac arrest during a spacewalk at the International Space Station will receive the emergency surgery he needs to survive the trip back to Earth now that a surgeon has been launched to the orbiting outpost.

Or rather that is the fictional plot line behind the real-life liftoff of Russian actress Yulia Peresild, producer Klim Shipenko and veteran cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov on a mission to film the first feature-length movie in space.

The three crewmates launched Tuesday (Oct. 5) on board Russia's Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Riding atop a Soyuz 2.1a rocket that was specially decorated for the movie, Shkaplerov, Shipenko and Peresild took flight at 4:55 a.m. EDT (0855 GMT or 1:55 p.m. local time) on a fast-track, two-orbit rendezvous to the space station.

posted 10-05-2021 07:44 AM               

Soyuz docks to space station under manual control

The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft carrying Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and producer Klim Shipenko docked to the Rassvet module on the International Space Station at 8:22 a.m. EDT (1222 GMT) while both spacecraft were flying about 260 miles (418 km) above Earth to the north of the Philippine islands.

The docking occurred a few minutes later than originally planned due to Shkaplerov having to take over manual control after encountering communication issues with the KURS automated docking system.

"It was a little dramatic at the end in order for your movie to be more dramatic," Roscosmos director general Dmitry Rogozin radioed to Shkaplerov after the docking was complete.

posted 03-30-2022 06:38 AM               

Record-breaking US astronaut and Russian crew land from station

A record-setting American astronaut and his two Russian crewmates have returned together from the International Space Station, showing that cooperation in space can continue even as tensions on the ground run high.

Mark Vande Hei of NASA, who at 355 days has now spent more time on a single space mission than any other U.S. astronaut in history, landed alongside his two Expedition 66 colleagues, cosmonauts Pyotr Dubrov and Anton Shkaplerov of Roscosmos, Russia's space corporation. The three touched down on Wednesday (March 30) at 7:28 a.m. EDT (1128 GMT or 5:28 p.m. local) on Russia's Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, descending to the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.