With years of planning, securing funds, a rocket from Elon Musk, and a crew crazy enough to shoot in space, Tom Cruise’s dream to be the first actor to shoot a film in space came crumbling down this Tuesday after a Russian Film Crew beat him in the race as they docked with the International Space Station where they will be shooting a feature film with Russian actress Yulia Peresild.
The Russian space station currently orbits Earth at an altitude of 220 miles. The news was broken by the Russian state media, as they put up a countdown clock to this iconic moment. The state media channel called it a breakthrough that the rest of the world has a close eye on.
The film titled “The Challenge” is another step towards Russia beating the USA in the race to space. The Russian crew will reach solar system ahead of Tom Cruise, whose plans to head to outer space in Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket for the unnamed film in the Mission Impossible franchise were announced by NASA last year.
The competition to reach space between Russia and the USA has a long history, which dates back to the cold war. Back then Moscow launched their first satellite & put the first man and woman in space, but were beaten by NASA, who managed to put a man on the moon.
It seemed as though Russia was behind in the space race, due to recent delays, accidents and corruption scandals brewing in their space industry, while the USA has private firms owned by rich businessmen and visionaries like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who have developed their own spaceships.
The Russian crew is accompanied by two cosmonauts on their 12-Day mission.
Kremlin’s spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said after the launch “Space is where we became pioneers and we still maintain a confident lead despite everything,”.
In the Russian Film “The Challenge” Peresild is playing the role of a doctor who is sent on a space mission to save the life of a cosmonaut.
The Director for the feature film Klim Shipenko was delighted at shooting in space, and has announced that he will be looking forward to shooting a sequel for the film on Mars.
The Russian rocket took off from the “Baikonur cosmodrome” which Russia leases on the steppes of Kazakhstan.