Russia Soyuz Rocket Will Beat NASA, Tom Cruise As It Will Soon Launch First Film Crew to Space; Who Will Be Aboard?

Russia is on the verge of defeating NASA in a race to make the first full-length film in the International Space Station (ISS).

On Tuesday, Russia's space agency Roscosmos will launch a two-person film crew on a Soyuz rocket to space. Actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko will join cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov aboard the spacecraft, which will launch from Kazakhstan at 4:55 a.m. ET.

In the video embedded below, NASA TV will cover the launch live. The spaceship docking to the ISS will be seen on the live stream around 8:12 a.m. ET. The film star, director, and cosmonaut will float into the station at 10 a.m. ET.

As the spaceship's pilot, Shkaplerov will complete his fourth spaceflight. Peresild and Shipenko will spend ten days aboard the space station filming on Russia's side with the aid of cosmonauts. Peresild portrays a doctor who launches to the International Space Station to help a cosmonaut in the film "Challenge."

According to the New York Times, Peresild stated that she is not scared. Fear is normal, she added.

Peresild went on a parabolic aircraft trip as part of her training, which flies arcs up and down to replicate the microgravity of the ISS for about 30 seconds at a time.

According to the Times, Peresild said the process is terrifying for the first two seconds. After that, it's lovely.

She's on track to surpass Tom Cruise as the first actress to film in space. Last year, NASA revealed in a Science Times report that it was negotiating with Cruise about making a movie aboard the International Space Station, but they gave no timeframe.

A few months later, Roscosmos launched its own space-movie project, with a casting call for females to feature in it. Peresild was eventually chosen, and the agency rearranged their spaceflight plan to allow for an October launch.

NASA Will Break a Spaceflight Record by Making Room for the Film Crew

Peresild and Shipenko will return to Earth on a Soyuz spacecraft on October 16, Space.com said. They will return in Kazakhstan shortly after the following day. Shkaplerov will work a six-month shift onboard the station, while cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy will complete his mission and come home with the film team.

Mark Vande Hei, a NASA astronaut, and Petr Dubrov, a cosmonaut, who went up to the International Space Station alongside Novitskiy, are giving up their return seats for the actress and director. Instead, after nearly a year in orbit, the two men will return to Earth in March. Vande Hei's mission will have been the longest spaceflight ever completed by an American at that time, surpassing astronaut Scott Kelly's previous record.

Vande Hei believes the squad would hold the record, according to Business Insider. He also doesn't anticipate the history of enduring very long. He emphasized that they are always doing larger and better things.

He said that a year in orbit would be "a drop in the bucket" compared to a trip to Mars.

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