Russian actor and director making first movie in space return to Earth after 12-day mission

Crew members, cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and film director Klim Shipenko, answer questions behind a glass wall during a news conference ahead of the expedition to the International Space Station (ISS) at the Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan Oct. 4, 2021. Image: Andrey Shelepin/GCTC/Roscosmos via Reuters

MOSCOW — A Russian actor and a film director making the first film in space returned to Earth on Sunday after spending 12 days on the International Space Station (ISS).

The Soyuz MS-18 space capsule carrying Russian ISS crew member Oleg Novitskiy, Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko landed in a remote area outside the western Kazakhstan at 07:35 a.m. (0435 GMT), the Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

The crew had dedocked from the ISS three hours earlier.

Russian state TV footage showed the reentry capsule descending under its parachute above the vast Kazakh steppe, followed by ground personnel assisting the smiling crew as they emerged from the capsule.

However, Peresild, who is best known for her role in the 2015 film “Battle for Sevastopol,” said she had been sorry to leave the ISS.

“I’m in a bit of a sad mood today,” the 37-year-old actor told Russian Channel One after the landing.

“That’s because it had seemed that 12 days was such a long period of time, but when it was all over, I didn’t want to bid farewell.”

Last week, 90-year-old American actor William Shatner, Captain James Kirk of “Star Trek” fame, became the oldest person in space aboard a rocketship flown by billionaire Jeff Bezos’s company Blue Origin.

Peresild and Shipenko have been sent to Russian Star City, the home of Russia’s space program on the outskirts of Moscow for their post-flight recovery which will take about a week, Roscosmos said. JB

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