The Soyuz MS-19 mission to the International Space Station (ISS) lifted off at 08:55 UTC (04:55 EDT) on Tuesday, October 5 from Site 31/6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, before docking after a two-orbit rendezvous – albeit after another troublesome docking, requiring manual control to complete the arrival.
The mission delivered one new Russian ISS crewmember for a six-month stay as well as an actress and director who will film the movie The Challenge. The mission is the first to launch under strict new regulations enacted last week by the Russian FSB (Federal Security Service) which essentially forbids its citizens from reporting on the Russian space program outside of Russia, less that person then be classified as a “foreign agent.”
Soyuz MS-19
The Soyuz MS-19 mission is unique from other station flights in that it did not just carry a new ISS crewmember in Anton Shkaplerov but also ferried up, for the first time, an actress and film producer/director — Yulia Pereslid and Klim Shipenko, respectively — who will spend 12 days on the outpost filming a movie.
Roughly 35-40 minutes of footage for The Challenge will be filmed on the ISS per Russian media reports. Anton Shkaplerov as well as Pyotr Dubrov and Oleg Novitskiy, the two Russian cosmonauts currently on the station, will appear in the film as well. NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei will assist with the production — per Russian media.
Differing plots have been reported, with some indicating the film centers around a medical emergency requiring heart surgery in microgravity while others are vaguer — indicating a fast training period to perform surgery on a cosmonaut whose condition prevents a return to Earth.
This will mark the first time a feature film will be shot in space and is a major expansion from previous operations for Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency. Previously, Roscosmos has allowed tourists who could afford the price tag to fly on Soyuz spacecraft to and from the ISS with extensive training.
The prime crew for Soyuz MS-19. Left to right: Yulia Peresild, Anton Shkaplerov, and Klim Shipenko. (Credit: Roscosmos)
Pereslid and Shipenko are now the first ordinary Russian citizens to fly to space, with Pereslid saying she never held a desire to travel to orbit before the opportunity for the film arose last year.
What’s more, per Roscosmos, the training schedule for Pereslid and Shipenko was significantly compressed compared to past missions, with the two — as well as their backups — completing flight training in less than five months.
Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos, is quoted in Russian media confirming the above, referring to the film and flight as an “experiment to see if Roscosmos can prepare two ordinary people to fly in about three or four months.”
Shortening the training period going forward could — in theory — allow for a somewhat rapid response (assuming a rocket and spacecraft were available) to an emergency in space requiring a person with a specific skill set.
Moreover, shortening training periods could open up space to a wider group of people who can’t afford to spend months in training.
However, the presence of Pereslid and Shipenko on the mission has not passed without concern or criticism.
Сжали и залили гипсом наших космонавтов 😜
Это — важный этап подготовки. Чтобы космонавт безопасно перенес перегрузки, используют амортизационное кресло, для которого делают специальный индивидуальный ложемент.
📺 Смотрите в 22.00 новую серию релити #Вызов. Первые в космосе pic.twitter.com/sMf5QITKji
— РОСКОСМОС (@roscosmos) October 3, 2021
(Tweet translation: Compressed and filled with plaster of our cosmonauts. This is an important preparation step. In order for the astronaut to safely endure overloads, a shock-absorbing chair is used, for which a special individual mold is made. Watch a new series of reliti at 22.00 #Вызов … The first in space.)
As with pushback in the U.S. to Tom Cruise’s proposed flight to the ISS to film a movie and the recent criticism leveled against Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic in the suborbital tourism realm, several organizations and people have criticized Roscosmos for removing trained cosmonauts from Soyuz MS-19 to make room for an actress and a film director.
Others have pointed to the perceived lack of training the two have received while also claiming it is illegal to use the ISS — a science outpost — in this manner. Others charge that Pereslid and Shipenko’s presence is an inappropriate and even illegal use of Russian public funds.
Prominent Russian cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev was reported by Russian media to have been fired from his position as director of crew programs for Roscosmos for raising concerns about the mission. Subsequent reports indicate he was reinstated after protests from active and former cosmonauts.
Regardless of the reaction, the mission did see Pereslid and Shipenko undergo training, including a four-hour simulation in a Soyuz trainer in late July. Pereslid has also actively shared her training experience since May 24 when preparations began.
After launching from Baikonur at 08:55 UTC on Tuesday, October 5, Soyuz MS-19 carried Shkaplerov, Pereslid, and Shipenko to the station in just over three hours later, with docking to the Rassvet module at 12:22 UTC. This was later than expected, due to another issue with the KURS, requiring Anton to manually dock the vehicle.
Once their 12 days of filming are complete, Pereslid and Shipenko will not re-board Soyuz MS-19 but will instead climb into Soyuz MS-18 and return to Earth on October 17, not with Anton Shkaplerov but with Soyuz MS-18 commander Oleg Novitskiy.
The Soyuz rocket, sporting special livery for the film portion of the mission, is rolled out by technicians to Site 31/6 for final launch preparations. (Credit: Roscosmos)
Upon their return, The Challenge is scheduled for release in 2022.
Meanwhile, Pyotr Dubrov and Mark Vande Hei, who launched with Novitskiy on Soyuz MS-18, will take Pereslid and Shipenko’s seats on Soyuz MS-19 when it returns to Earth in late March 2022.
This will result in Dubrov and Vande Hei remaining in space for approximately 353 days, during which Vande Hei will claim the record for longest single spaceflight by an American. Dubrov will not claim the same record for Russia; that honor (as well as the world record) is currently held by Valery Polyakov, who spent nearly 438 consecutive days in space from January 1994 to March 1995.
What should be a moment of expansion and celebration for Roscosmos has been marred by the implementation of strict new FSB regulations that are largely aimed at Roscosmos and any Russian citizen who reports on the Russian space program outside of Russia.
New FSB regulations
The new regulations, which took effect on September 29, 2021, essentially prohibit Russians from reporting on the Russian space program outside of Russia. Violators of these regulations will be classified as “foreign agents” — which would create numerous legal issues for Russian citizens.
Specifically, the new regulations target the field of military and technical activities that are not related to or connected in any way with state secrets but which, with vague language, “can be used against Russia.”
Most of the activities on the newly released list by the FSB specifically focus on Roscosmos.
Prohibited topics of reporting regarding Roscosmos now include information on investigations conducted by the agency, the organization’s financials, condition of rockets and ground support equipment, development plans for Roscosmos vehicles, Roscosmos’ cooperation with other nations for space activities, and new technologies.
The FSB went on to say that any person in Russia found to be collecting this information for a “foreign state, international or foreign organization, foreign citizens, or stateless persons” will have to register with the Russian government as a foreign agent.
The move comes as Roscosmos seeks to leave the International Space Station, build their polar station (ROSS), and partner — in part — with China for a new lunar initiative designed to compete with the NASA-led international Artemis program.
Moreso, the new regulations take effect after a series of public issues with the Soyuz rocket and the Soyuz spacecraft itself. A Soyuz 2.1a rocket failed on the crewed Soyuz MS-10 mission in October 2018 — though the abort systems worked perfectly and both crew members were safely recovered, reunited with their families, and then re-launched six months later on Soyuz MS-12.
The Soyuz MS-10 mission experiences an off-nominal booster separation, causing an in-flight abort which safely returned both crew members to Earth. (Credit: NASA)
Less than two months before the MS-10 in-flight abort, the Soyuz MS-09 spacecraft was found to be the source of a slow air leak on the ISS from a small hole that was drilled into the craft’s Orbital Module on the ground and then covered and plugged in an attempt to fix or hide the issue.
Roscosmos initially confirmed that the hole was drilled on the ground and patched up, but then changed their narrative and blamed a NASA astronaut for taking a drill to the Soyuz in space, with the allegation being that this astronaut then plugged the hole to hide what they’d done.
Despite the allegations against NASA, Roscosmos has never been able to explain how a hole could have been drilled in space through the Soyuz’s pressure shell without causing an atmosphere leak on the station — which would have to be the case if the hole was drilled and then plugged in space while Soyuz was docked to the ISS.
Less than a month after the hole was found, Dmitry Rogozin said in September 2019 that the investigation was complete and that Roscosmos knew what happened but would not release any information — a curious move for an agency that seemed certain a NASA astronaut, and not their quality control processes, was to blame.
(Lead image: Soyuz MS-19 on the launch pad. Credit: Roscosmos)