A Russian cosmonaut, actress, and film producer have reached the International Space Station to film segments for a movie.
Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actress Yulia Peresild and producer Klim Shipenko lifted aboard Russia's Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4.55 a.m. EDT (2.25 p.m. Tuesday, India time).
The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft made a fast-track, two-orbit journey to dock to the station's Rassvet module and docked at about 8.12 a.m. EDT (5.42 p.m. on Tuesday, India time).
"Contact confirmed, capture confirmed! The #SoyuzMS19 crewed spacecraft has docked to the Russian segment of the International Space Station after just two orbits around the Earth! Welcome to the ISS, @Anton_Astrey, Klim and Yulia!" Roscosmos- the Russian space agency posted on Twitter.
The launch marks the expansion of commercial space opportunities to include feature filmmaking, NASA said in a statement.
About two hours after docking, hatches between the Soyuz and the station will open. The trio aboard will then join Expedition 65 Commander Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency), NASA astronauts Mark Vande Hei, Shane Kimbrough and Megan McArthur, Aki Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov.
Peresild and Shipenko, who are making their first flights into space, will spend 12 days on the space station, filming segments for a movie titled "Challenge" under a commercial agreement between Roscosmos and Moscow-based media entities, NASA said.
Peresild and Shipenko will return to the Earth with Novitskiy on October 16 on the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft, which is currently docked at the space station, for a parachute-assisted landing on the Kazakh steppe.
Shkaplerov will remain aboard the station through next March, returning with Vande Hei and Dubrov on the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft.
*Edited from an IANS report