Russian actress Yulia Peresild, producer-director Klim Shipenko, and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy have safely returned home after filming the first movie in orbit.
On Oct. 16, after saying their goodbyes to the rest of the astronauts and cosmonauts on the International Space Station and closing the hatch at 4:41 p.m. ET, their Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft undocked from the station at 9:14 p.m. ET.
At 11:42 p.m. ET on Oct. 17, the spacecraft experienced deorbit burn and landed parachute-assisted on the steppe of Kazakhstan at 12:35 a.m. ET (10:35 a.m. Kazakhstan time).
Peresild and Shipenko were on the station to film scenes for "Vyzov" or "Challenge," a Russian film directed by Shipenko and starring Peresild. Peresild plays a doctor who flies to the station to operate on a cosmonaut played by Novitskiy.
The film is being produced through a commercial arrangement between Roscosmos and the Moscow-based media companies Channel One and Yellow, Black, and White.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, greeted the crew as they exited the spacecraft. Film crews were on the way to the landing site to film extra scenes for the film.
Helicopters recovered the crew after a medical evacuation and delivered them to Karaganda, Kazakhstan. After that, they'll fly to the training base in Star City, Russia. After spending 12 days in space, Peresild and Shipenko will go through a 10-day rehab program to assist them acclimate to their return to Earth.
The crew's return to Earth comes after the Soyuz spacecraft completed a scheduled thruster fire test while still docked with the space station on Friday morning. The thruster firing unexpectedly continued beyond the test that was supposed to end at 5:13 a.m. ET on Friday. This resulted in a loss of orientation control for the space station.
"Within 30 minutes, flight controllers regained attitude control of the space station, which is now in a stable configuration," NASA said. "The crew was awake at the time of the event and was not in any danger."
As flight controllers review the data, the agency and Roscosmos are collaborating to determine the cause.
