In recent years, the Russian space industry has struggled both in innovation and in raising funds. Since then, the US has largely dominated space missions while Roscosmos, the Russian space agency, has taken a backseat. But the United States had managed to edge out the Soviet Union in setting foot on the moon with its Apollo 11 mission. Russia, then Soviet Union, had succeeded in launching the first satellite (Sputnik), first animal (a dog named Laika), the first man (Yuri Gagarin), and the first woman (Valentina Tareshkova), into space. Russia’s success is reminiscent of the space race witnessed between the erstwhile Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. The latter had earlier announced a similar Hollywood project by actor Tom Cruise in collaboration with NASA and SpaceX. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.With this launch, Russia has edged out the United States in the race to shoot a film in space. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. For Russia's space industry today, that means, hopefully, the beginning of a new Russian age in amateur space travel and, yes, film.Ĭopyright © 2021 NPR. MAYNES: "Competitors help each other by pushing everyone to new achievements," says Egorov. In that sense, "The Challenge" is a reboot of that classic Cold War genre, the space race. MAYNES: Russia's once-vaunted Soviet space program has faced financial cutbacks and new competition from SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' New Horizons and other players like China. MAYNES: Journalist Vitaly Egorov says Russia's space agency made no secret of their rush to beat Cruise to the stars and with good reason.ĮGOROV: (Through interpreter) This project promotes our space program and shows it hasn't gathered cobwebs, that we're still flying and can come up with interesting ideas. MAYNES: Actor Tom Cruise, heard here narrating from Earth a 2002 documentary about the then-new ISS was planning his own space movie in partnership with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX. TOM CRUISE: What an incredible sight - a Hollywood special effect, you're thinking. After all, this is the first movie with real actors made in real space, and it's beating out some better-known competition. MAYNES: Peresild, the film's lead, says she just wants to make a good movie despite the challenging circumstances. YULIA PERESILD: (Non-English language spoken). MAYNES: Over the next 12 days on set at the International Space Station, the group's mission is to film "The Challenge," a movie about a female surgeon who's unexpectedly sent to the ISS to save an ailing cosmonaut. MAYNES: In the press conference before the launch, their real-life cosmonaut captain, Anton Shkaplerov, seemed more worried about upcoming scenes than piloting the rocket on his own.ĪNTON SHKAPLEROV: (Through interpreter) I hope the director will tell me what to do and what to say and when to keep my mouth shut. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken). UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Non-English language spoken). It might have been part of the film already. Charles Maynes reports from Moscow.ĬHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: Before crowds of well-wishers at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Russian actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko blasted off into space aboard a Soyuz MS-19 rocket Tuesday morning. A Russian film crew docked at the International Space Station, intending to make the world's first-ever movie in orbit. We have a report now on the latest place for on-location filmmaking.
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