On October 5, 2021, the film crew of the film “Challenge” arrived at the ISS - allegedly the first film to be filmed in orbit. We checked whether this is actually true.

Klim Shipenko’s film, tentatively titled “Challenge,” is positioned as “the first film in the history of cinema to be shot in space.” About this it says on the website of Channel One, which organizes the project together with the state corporation Roscosmos and the production company Yellow, Black and White. The film is presented similarly in the titles and notes TASS, RBC, "Interfax", "Novaya Gazeta", "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", BBC Russian Service, euronews and many other major media outlets.

In 2008 on the ISS went space tourist Richard Garriott. He became one of the few second-generation astronauts - his father flew into orbit in 1973 and 1983. During his 11 days on the ISS, Garriott Jr. participated in scientific experiments for NASA and the European Space Agency and even held the first art exhibition in space. Before, during and after the flight, he never parted with his camera—later a documentary was made from the footage. Man on a Mission.

During his stay at the station, Garriott did not limit himself to documentary filming and persuaded the astronauts to participate in a short feature film during their off hours. Seven-minute tape called Apogee of Fear came out in 2012. In the story, the astronauts (played by Edward Finke, Yuri Lonchakov, Greg Chamitoff, Sergei Volkov and Oleg Kononenko, who were then on the ISS) after Garriott's flight back to Earth discover that the station is using more oxygen than is needed for the remaining inhabitants of the station. The astronauts decide that there might be aliens on the ISS and set out to find them.

Shortly before Channel One and Roscosmos in September 2020 announced about preparing your project, with a similar idea spoke actor and producer Tom Cruise. About support for this initiative repeatedly spoke one of the leaders of NASA Jim Bridenstine. However, in September 2021, The New York Times wrote, that “no news about the development of the project” has been received since then.

How emphasizes editor of the space portal CollectSpace Robert Perlman, the qualitative difference between “The Challenge” and Apogee of Fear is that a professional director and a professional actress purposefully flew into orbit, and filming a feature film is the main (or at least one of the main) tasks of the crew. Moreover, unlike Garriott's very short amateur film, the Russian film will be full-length, although not entirely shot in orbit - according to message Channel One, footage from space will take 35–40 minutes of screen time.

Cover photo: RIA Novosti / Pool