Russian film crew returns to Earth after filming first movie in Space

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers has landed after a 3 1/2-hour trip from the International Space Station. The 12-day journey, backed by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, was the latest act in a race among spacefaring countries to generate public excitement about human spaceflight and demonstrate that destinations like the space station aren’t exclusive to government astronauts. The filming began as the movie crew arrived in space.

A Soyuz space capsule carrying a cosmonaut and two Russian filmmakers has landed after a 3 1/2-hour trip from the International Space Station. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/Reuters Photo

Peresild, Shipenko and Oleg Novitsky, a Russian astronaut who’s been on the station since April and played the role of the film’s ailing cosmonaut, bid farewell to the station’s crew of seven. The crew’s trip home took about three hours before landing at 10:35 a.m. local time in the desert steppe of Kazakhstan’s Karaganda Region. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/Reuters Photo

The 12-day journey, backed by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, was the latest act in a race among spacefaring countries to generate public excitement about human spaceflight and demonstrate that destinations like the space station aren’t exclusive to government astronauts. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/Reuters Photo

The Russian crew returned after spending 12 days aboard the International Space Station shooting scenes for the first feature-length drama made with scenes shot in space. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP Photo

Shipenko filmed scenes using hand-held cameras inside the capsule of another Soyuz module as it approached the space station. When it docked, Pyotr Dubrov, one of the space station’s Russian astronauts, was waiting behind a large digital cinema camera as the crew emerged from their capsule and floated into the station for the first time. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP Photo

Russian actress Yulia Peresild rests after the landing of the Soyuz MS-18 space capsule in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/Reuters Photo

Russian film director Klim Shipenko is seen resting in a chair after the landing of the Russian Soyuz MS-18 space capsule in Kazakhstan. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP Photo

Actress Yulia Peresild signs the Soyuz MS-18 capsule after landing in Kazakhstan. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/Reuters Photo

Actress Yulia Peresild is assisted by ground personnel shortly after landing in a remote area outside Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/Reuters Photo

The Russian space agency said that the crew felt well ahead of their exit from the Soyuz and would undergo a 10-day rehabilitation to help recover from the effects of living in the microgravity environment of low-earth orbit. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP Photo

Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, is helped to disembark after the landing of the Russian Soyuz MS-18 space capsule in Kazakhstan. Credit: Russian Space Agency Roscosmos/AFP Photo