Science & Technology

A Soyuz-2.1a rocket booster carrying the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft blasts off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. (Photo by Sergei Savostyanov\TASS via Getty Images)

If you’re a science fiction fan, then the idea of being able to go into space is probably thrilling. Recently, Star Trek’s William Shatner, who played Captain Kirk on the original 1960s television series, became the oldest person, at 90, to travel to the final frontier. And now, a Russian film crew just filmed the first movie ever shot in space.

Currently, the working title for the movie is Challenge. While not much has been said about the actual plot, rumor has it a female doctor, played by Yulia Peresild, will have to go and try to help a cosmonaut who is too ill to return to Earth on his own.

The International Space Station

The crew was taken to the International Space Station (ISS) for the filming. As with most endeavors, the project had some problems. One day, the ISS tilted unexpectedly. This caused a pause in filming. In another incident, an automatic system failed, and the commander had to switch to manual control.

International Space Station (Photo by Mai/Getty Images)

The ISS is the largest orbiting laboratory ever built. It was first launched in November 1998 by Russian space agency Roscosmos, but since then, American, European, Japanese, and Canadian space agencies have added upgrades, such as robotic arms. The idea behind the space station is to learn how to live and work in space, with the goal of building a permanent base on the moon.

It was also made to do scientific experiments, such as studying plants and materials in microgravity. Researchers on Earth send guidelines to aid astronauts in the experiments. Another benefit of the ISS is to study the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body.

Filming in Space

Peresild, the actress who portrays the doctor, said, “Every second was a big discovery.” The movie crew spent 12 days aboard the International Space Station and were met not only with malfunctions from the station but also challenges with acting and filming. Russian film director Klim Shipenko said:

“Some scenes that I imagined one way on Earth came together completely differently … People can be face-to-face [in space] but one of them is head up and the other is horizontal and the camera can be on a different plane … For me, it was a cinematic discovery to realize scenes in a completely different way …”

(Photo by Roscosmos Press Service/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

The Russian crew beat American actor Tom Cruise to filming in space. NASA agreed to work with Cruise to film a movie aboard the ISS. A release date has not yet been set.

Meanwhile, Director Shipenko said he’s ready to go further, to the moon, to film. “We’re ready. We believe space cinema should be filmed in space,” he said during a news conference. “If it’s about the moon, let’s go to the moon, if it’s Mars, let’s go to Mars. Why not? Why should cinema be filmed in a studio?”