Historic! This Russian actress to beat Tom Cruise to International Space Station

Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise will head to the International Space Station (ISS) later this year for the purposes of shooting a space movie, but well ahead of that, Russian actress Yulia Peresild is heading to the space station next week itself to begin shooting her movie. She will thereby beat Tom Cruise to become the first actor in space. Not just that, this will create history of sorts as it will become the first movie to be shot in space. It will add to the space rivalry between Russia and the US that has been going on since the Cold War first started.

Yulia Peresild will lift off on October 5 in a Russian Soyuz MS-19 capsule along with her crew to film her next space movie, which is a feature film. The ISS orbits high above the Earth - over 350 km up. Tom Cruise will however, be travelling to the ISS on billionaire Elon Musk led company SpaceX's Dragon capsule.

"This movie is built around a story of an ordinary person... a doctor who had nothing to do with space exploration and never thought about it is offered to travel to the ISS... and save a cosmonaut's life," director and actor Klim Shipenko told a news conference last week.

Russian actress heads to the ISS for movie shoot

Shipenko also shed light on the difficulties of shooting in zero gravity. The director is who is 6 feet 2 inches tall, says that his height makes training inside the spacecraft as well as the trip very uncomfortable. “It is okay. I will fly now as it is, but when we do the sequel about travel to Mars, then they promise there will be a better seat,” he adds.

Peresild herself has concerns but not the time to care abut the challenges. “It will not be on the same level as on Earth, but we will do our best. We are ready for it," she said. "It is a bit too late to be afraid because we've come so far, there is Baikonur ahead and a lot of things (to do) and to be honest, there is just no time left for fear."

The actress says she has to be her own makeup support and costume designer in the confines of the spacecraft. The film is also going to show the professional cosmonauts floating around the space. Commander Anton Shkaplerov says, “I won't be starring in it but still I will need to figure out how a movie is produced in such an unusual place as outer space.”