Even after securing funding, a rocket from Elon Musk, and a director crazy enough to join him for the mission, Tom Cruise‘s plans to be the first actor to shoot a film in space went out the window on Tuesday morning. Making good on their promise to beat Cruise’s production, a Russian film crew docked with the International Space Station on Tuesday where it will begin shooting a full feature film starring Russian actress Yulia Peresild.
The pair’s rocket was successfully launched this morning
It will be the first feature film to be shot entirely in space and production will take place on the International Space Station
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— Euronews Next (@euronewsnext) October 5, 2021
According to CNN, the two person film crew already experienced its first bout of drama as concerns about its ability to dock with the station became an issue:
Russian mission control was worried about the amount of time left they had to communicate with the crew on the Soyuz spacecraft ahead of docking since it would be briefly pass out of range with ground control stations.
“Anton, we have very little time left,” Russian mission control said. “After that, just as you trained for. You’ll be fine.”
“I can see everything really well,” Shkaplerov assured them shortly before safely docking.
The spacecraft is usually capable of docking itself, and manual docking is rare. There was also an issue with Kurs, the docking navigation system, in July, when Russia’s newly docked Nauka module accidentally fired its thrusters, spinning the space station out of control.
It was practically like a scene out of a movie, just not one starring Tom Cruise who will have to settle with being the second actor to film in space, which is still pretty cool. And, hey, let’s not act like he won’t be the first to do some crazy stunt like jump off the top of the International Space Station, or ride a motorcycle in orbit. He’ll think of something.
(Via CNN)