A Russian Actress And Film Director Returned Safely From The ISS

Russia became the first country to put an actor and director who acted as the cameraman onto the ISS to film a feature-length movie. The actress was Julia Peresild, and she and director Klim Shipenko returned to Earth on a Soyuz capsule commanded by cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy. The cosmonauts successfully returned to Earth and upon landing, filmed a few additional scenes for the conclusion of the movie.

Novitskiy's return marked the end of a 191 they stay aboard the ISS. He is also part of the movie playing the patient during shooting aboard the space station. He also played a part in the final scenes filmed on the ground after touchdown. Reports indicate he was patient and worked through multiple takes before filming stopped.

The trio was fit and able to talk comfortably with support crews after landing. Before filming the movie's closing scenes, they were taken to a medical tent for typical post-flight health checks. After filming and health checks were completed, the astronauts were flown to Karaganda to get on a jet to take them back to Star City.

The director and actress launched to the ISS on October 5 aboard a Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft commanded by cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov. When they arrived, crewmembers already aboard the ISS included cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov, ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet, Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide, and NASA astronauts Megan McArthur, Mark Vande Hei, and Shane Kimbrough.

Dubrov and Vande Hei have significantly more time to spend aboard the ISS. Both will have spent 355 days in space before they return to Earth at the end of March. The duo will return to Earth aboard Soyuz MS-19/65S spacecraft.