The Russians hit the Americans with the film crew in space

It topped the space list for the first time for a long time, and soon the Russians will be able to add another achievement to their space curriculum. Because after the first satellite (Sputnik), the first man (Yuri Gagarin), the first woman (Valentina Tereshkova) and the first animal (Laika the dog), Moscow will soon be able to add its first feature film in space to its list of achievements.

Russian actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Sibenko arrived on Tuesday afternoon, just before 2:30 Dutch time, at the International Space Station (ISS). The couple will spend a little less than two weeks there under the supervision of a number of experienced astronauts to watch the film Vesuvius (Challenge) to take. The film’s plot, which is largely secretive – like a budget – revolves around a female surgeon who is sent to the International Space Station to operate on an astronaut with heart problems.

superstitious

Like all Russian cosmonauts, 37-year-old Peresild and 38-year-old Shipenko watched the Soviet film a day before their launch into space. white desert sun. Watching this classic movie from the 1970s is a regular part of a – somewhat superstitious – tradition among Russian space travelers to make their journey into the universe safe and successful.

Russian space travel could also be successful. The sector has been experiencing various setbacks for years, including several launch failures.

In addition, several corruption scandals have appeared recently in the national space agency Roscosmos, and Russia is technologically light years behind its direct competitors, the United States and China.

Tom Cruise

But with the first movie recordings in the universe, the Russians still rivaled the Americans. A win that would savor it all, as US space agency NASA and billionaire private space company Elon Musk’s SpaceX announced last year that they plan to hire actor Tom Cruise, better known as… Mission: ImpossibleSeries, to shoot in space to shoot the universe’s first feature film.

So, this scoop is also going by the American nose again. Or, as Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov put it on Tuesday: “Space is a place where we have become pioneers and where we maintain a convincing position in spite of everything.”