A few hours separate the return to Earth of Russian actress Yulia Peresild and the ascent to the Chinese orbital complex of Colonel Wang Yaping of the Beijing People's Liberation Army Air Force.
The Chinese mission lifted off from the Jiuquan Space Centre in Inner Mongolia on 15 October and the Russian mission descended some 30 hours later from the International Space Station to the steppes of Kazakhstan in Central Asia. Each was accompanied by two men on their respective outward and return journeys. In the case of the Chinese, they were two other military aviators. In Yulia Peresild's case, one was film director, actor and fellow actor, Klim Shipenko. The other was cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky, a former lieutenant colonel in the Moscow Air Force.
The Russian performers had come from the International Space Station (ISS) after blasting off from Russia's Baikonur Cosmodrome on 5 October. Up there, at an altitude of more than 400 kilometres, Yulia Peresild, 37, and Klim Shipenko, the director of the performances they were to film - 'The Challenge' - stayed for 12 days and became the first professional actors to act in a film shot in outer space.
Colonel Wang Yaping, 41, does not have to film a feature film or anything like it. She is China's second female cosmonaut and has been trained to become the first female to spend six months aboard the Tiangong space station. She is to do so alongside Colonel Ye Guangfu - who is making his maiden flight - and veteran cosmonaut and general Zhai Zhigang, with the aim of doubling the Chinese space record of three months.
General Zhai Zhigang is the first Chinese astronaut to have performed a space walk. He did so in September 2008 for 22 minutes. Now he has been chosen to command the Shenzhou 13 mission and advise Colonel Wang Yaping, who has been selected to make history: she will be the first Chinese to leave the orbital station and expose her body to outer space. In addition, during their 180 days around the Earth, the three will conduct various experiments and use a robotic arm to dock the Tianzhou 2 cargo spacecraft, which will supply them with provisions, fuel, water and spare parts.
What have the two Russian actors done during their time on the ISS? First of all, they have had to curb their nausea and adapt to the special living and moving conditions in microgravity. After the first 48 hours in orbit, Yulia Peresild focused her efforts on getting 35 to 40 minutes of valid scenes of her role as a cardiologist in the world's first blockbuster partly shot in space.
"The Challenge" is a film with shots of professional actors filmed for the first time circling the Earth, 420 kilometres above the ground and flying over the Earth's surface at a speed of over 27,000 km/h. These are technical difficulties that provide great incentive to attract millions of viewers to see the film.
A Russian blockbuster, 'The Challenge' - Vyzov in Russian - is the result of a joint project between the television channel Pervy Kanal, the major film and television production company Yellow, Black and White Studio and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), whose contribution has been essential.
From the little that has transpired about the plot of the film is that a Russian aboard the ISS - the real cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky - loses consciousness due to a very serious heart condition. The Russian authorities decide that the prestigious cardiologist Zhenya - played by Yulia Peresild - should fly to the orbital complex to perform emergency surgery in microgravity to save the patient's life.
Director and actor Klim Shipenko takes on the male lead role. During filming on the ISS, he has also acted as camera operator, make-up artist and sound technician. The film takes advantage of the unique setting to feature additional crew members of the orbital complex, such as retired American Colonel Mark Vande Hei and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Peter Dubrov.
The result of integrating real footage in orbit with scenes in open-air locations and film studios has created a buzz among film professionals around the world. The film will be distributed globally in 2022 and is to be compared to the anguish provoked by the award-winning American film 'Gravity' (2009) by Mexican film director Alfonso Cuarón. Starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock in starring roles, a total of 80 of the 91-minute film is packed with Oscar-winning computer special effects.
In Russia, the film will be cross-checked against the 2017 domestic production 'Salyut 7', which was directed by Klim Shipenko, he who now makes and performs 'The Challenge'. To recreate the ill-fated Soviet space station 'Salyut 7' from the 1980s, huge sets were built in St. Petersburg. And to simulate the movements of the cosmonauts in orbit, Vladimir Putin had to authorise the use of Ilyushin Il-76 military aircraft equipped for zero-gravity flights. Thus the struggle between Beijing and Moscow, Xi Jinping will not take long to give his approval to a Chinese film shot beyond our Blue Planet.