Filmmakers back on Earth after space shoot
A SOYUZ space capsule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers has landed after returning from the International Space Station.
The capsule, descending under a red-and-white striped parachute after entering Earth’s atmosphere, landed upright in the steppes of Kazakhstan on schedule early on Sunday morning after a three-anda-half hour journey with Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Peresild and Klim
Shipenko aboard.
Actress Peresild and film director Shipenko rocketed to the space station on October 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.
After the landing, 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.
Peresild smiled and held a large bouquet of white flowers as journalists clustered around her, though said she felt sad the expedition is over.
“It seemed 12 days would be a lot, but I did not want to leave when everything was over,” she said.
They were then taken to a medical tent for examination, though all appeared to be healthy.
The transfer to the medical tent was delayed for about 10 minutes while crews filmed several takes of Peresild and Novitskiy in their seats, which are to be included in the movie.
More scenes remain to be shot on Earth for the film, which does not yet have a release date.