Russian spacecraft returns to Earth with movie crew aboard

Russian actress and director-producer Yulia Peresild spent 12 days aboard International Space Station. She returned to Earth on Sunday with Oleg Novitskiy, cosmonaut who was in space for 191 day. Yulia Peresild, actress, and Klim Shipenko, director-producer, went to the International Space Station on October 5th to film scenes for The Challenge. The movie is about a Russian doctor who travels to space to treat a sick cosmonaut.
They were aboard the Soyuz MS-18 satellite craft, which landed in rural Kazakhstan at 12:35 AM ET. The trio will return to Russia later on Sunday. Novitskiy, who was on his third mission to the ISS, arrived at the station on April 9th and has spent 531 days in space.

The Soyuz craft on which the trio were traveling had some problems Saturday. Its thrusters didn't stay on for as long as expected during an engine test. Before ground crews could regain control, the ISS was tilted from its normal position. Officials said that the crew of the ISS were not in danger. However, this was the second incident with a Russian craft in the last year.

Peresild, Shipenko and their crew are the first to visit the ISS as part of a commercial agreement with Roscosmos. The movie will also feature small parts for Cosmonauts Novitskiy and Anton Shkaplerov.