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Film crew’s ISS mission to lure ‘best of the best’ to space industry, Roscosmos chief says

Dmitry Rogozin expressed hope that as a result of the mission a truly serious work of art and a whole new development of the promotion of space technologies would be obtained
Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin Sergei Savostyanov/TASS
Roscosmos CEO Dmitry Rogozin
© Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

MOSCOW, October 5. /TASS/. Roscosmos Director General Dmitry Rogozin said that the movie production crew’s mission involving actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko to the International Space Station (ISS) is special and would make it possible to simultaneously attract the cream of the crop to the space sector and hone cosmonaut training technologies.

"Undoubtedly, this mission is special, we have people going to space who are neither tourists nor professional cosmonauts. The members of a space flight are going who are professionals in their field who must fulfill their objectives in zero gravity, under generally aggressive space environment conditions. And as a result of this work, we hope to obtain a truly serious work of art and a whole new development of the promotion of space technologies, which is very important for Roscosmos, and overall for the entire aerospace sphere, because we really want [to attract] an influx of young specialists," he told Channel One.

According to him, the process is already underway but Roscosmos wants "the best of the best to come, because globally there is no profession more romantic and interesting than cosmonautics."

Dmitry Rogozin evaluated the emotional state of the mission crew as normal. "There are no objections relating to them. Undoubtedly, they are nervous. According to the reports by technical specialists and the state commission <...> so far everything is as planned. This doesn’t mean that there won’t be any disruptions. Anything can happen, this is equipment. Yet, so far everything is proceeding as planned," the Roscosmos chief assured.

He reiterated that during the flight the film crew will assist commander Anton Shkaplerov. "For us, it is important, first of all, to go through this stage: the flight itself, it will proceed along a super-short (double-loop, three-hour) [pattern]. And the second stage is highly important for us - the crew’s operations onboard. Because there a true scientific experiment will begin. Overall, we are expecting a lot from these four months of training," the official emphasized.

According to the Roscosmos chief, above all this involves the new technologies of training people who did not intend to go to space but for some reasons this became necessary. "If we hone this technology now and demonstrate it to the entire world, this means that we will be ready not only for one thousand emergency situations but also for the 1,001st [situation]. This is the most important," he concluded.

About the launch

The launch of the Soyuz-2.1A rocket carrier is scheduled for 11:55 Moscow time on October 5 from launch pad number 31 (Vostok/East) of the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The crew of the Soyuz MS-19 manned spacecraft will include Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko.

Peresild and Shipenko are planning to film the first motion picture in space. The drama under the working title called Challenge is a joint project by Roscosmos, Channel One and the Yellow, Black and White studio. It is a movie about a doctor, who despite being unfamiliar with the sphere of outer space, is forced by circumstance to fly to space in order to save a cosmonaut’s life.