Soyuz MS-18 manned spacecraft lands in Kazakh steppe
Moscow, Oct 17 (EFE).- The Russian manned Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft landed safely on the Kazakh steppe Sunday, according to images broadcast live by Russia’s space agency Roscosmos.
On board the descent capsule were Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitski and members of the first space film expedition, actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko returned to Earth from the International Space Station.
The Soyuz landed at 04.35 GMT about 150 kilometers to the southeast of the Kazakh city of Zheskangan, as planned.
“The crew is fine!” Roscomos wrote on Twitter immediately after landing.
They were received by Roscosmos Director Dmitri Rogozin.
The first to leave the capsule was Novitsky, its commander, followed by Shipenko, who in his first statements to the press said that “take off and landing are impressive sensations.”
Peresild was the last to leave. Smiling, assisted by doctors, the actress said the time she was on the orbital platform seemed little to her.
She and Shipenko spent 12 days at the station, where they shot a large part of the sequences of the fictional feature film “The Challenge,” a joint production of Roscosmos, the First Federal Television Channel and the Yellow, Black and White studio.
The film plot follows a surgeon, played by Peresild, who flies urgently into space after a short period of training to assist a cosmonaut, a role played by Novitski.
According to the project, the material shot in space will be used to produce about a third of the film, 30-35 minutes, while the rest of the sequences will be filmed on land.
Novitski also participates in the film, having completed a mission of just over six months aboard the orbital platform. Russians Anton Skpaklerov and Piotr Dubrov, Americans Mark Vande Hei, Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, France’s Thomas Pesquet and Japan’s Akihiko Hoshide remain at the station. EFE
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