Tom Cruise bows out of cinematic space race after Russians beat him to it

Tom Cruise‘s plans of becoming the first actor to shoot a film in space ended on Tuesday after a Russian film crew announced that they are on their way to the International Space Station to begin shooting for a show titled The Challenge.

A Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft blasted off at 4:55 a.m. ET on October 5 in Kazakhstan with Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, actor Yulia Peresild and film producer Klim Shipenko towards the International Space Station, NASA revealed. 

According to a CNN report, Peresild said, “Everything was new to us today, every 30 seconds brought something entirely new. It is almost impossible to think that this all came to reality. I also feel like I’m still dreaming.” The team is expected to spend 12 days at the space station. 

Peresild and Shipenko are set to return to Earth on another Soyuz spaceship on October 16, landing in Kazakhstan just after midnight ET the next day. The project marks the “expansion of commercial space opportunities to include feature filmmaking,” NASA said in a statement.

The Challenge, that will premiere on Russia’s Channel One, becomes the first feature film to be shot in outer space. The development comes months after Tom brokered a deal with NASA and Elon Musk’s SpaceX to film a $200 million space-based action film, directed by Doug Liman.

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According to a tweet by Space Shuttle Almanac, Tom’s stay on the space station was slated to happen in October, but no definitive date for his launch has been revealed yet. 

Tom, who is currently shooting for Mission: Impossible 8, was recently in news after reports revealed that he is learning to fly an 80-year-old military plane for the film. This will be the third film in the MI series to be directed by Christopher McQuarrie and is scheduled to release on 27th May 2022.