Russian filmmakers land after shooting first movie in space

Gulf Today Report

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers has landed after a 3 1/2-hour trip from the International Space Station.

A Russian actress and film director returned to Earth on Sunday after spending 12 days aboard the International Space Station shooting scenes for the first movie in orbit.

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The Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft ferrying Yulia Peresild, Klim Shipenko and cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky from the ISS landed on the Kazakh steppe at 0436 GMT, according to live footage broadcast by the Russian space agency.

Film director Klim Shipenko comes out from Soyuz MS-18 space capsule in Kazakhstan on Sunday. AP

The capsule, descending under a red-and-white striped parachute after entering Earth’s atmosphere, landed upright in the steppes of Kazakhstan on schedule at 0435 GMT Sunday with Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko aboard.

Actress Peresild and film director Shipenko rocketed to the space station on Oct. 5 for a 12-day stint to film segments of a movie titled "Challenge,” in which a surgeon played by Peresild rushes to the space station to save a crew member who needs an urgent operation in orbit. Novitskiy, who spent more than six months aboard the space station, is to star as the ailing cosmonaut in the movie.

Cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy (centre), actress Yulia Peresild (left) and film director Klim Shipenko sit in chairs shortly after the landing of the Russian Soyuz MS-18 space capsule in Kazakhstan, on Sunday. AP

After the landing, which sent plumes of dust flying high in the air, ground crews extracted the three space flyers from the capsule and placed them in seats set up nearby as they adjusted to the pull of gravity. They then will be taken to a medical tent for examination.

All appeared healthy and cheerful. Peresild smiled and held a large bouquet of white flowers as journalists clustered around her.

Seven astronauts remain aboard the space station: Russia's Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov; Americans Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur; Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency; and Japan's Aki Hoshide.