Russia took the lead in the space race in a different way this time, sending a movie crew to the International Space Station.
NASA is preparing a project to shoot a movie in space, starring Tom Cruise.
In the Russian film, directed by Klim Shipenko, actress Yulia Peresild will play the title role.
The Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft carrying them took off from Kazakhstan, and arrived three hours later to the International Space Station.
The camera lenses focused on Peresild and her 12-year-old daughter Anna, who watched her mother from a safe distance, during the launch of the spacecraft into space, in an atmosphere not without commercial show.
The director's wife, actress Sofia Karbonina, indicated that Shipenko had to lose 15 kilograms of weight before the start of his mission.
The spacecraft, led by astronaut Anton Shkaplerov, took off on Tuesday at 8:55 GMT. "The crew is in good shape," the commander of the vehicle said shortly after takeoff.
The Soyuz spacecraft docked at the International Space Station just over three hours later.
The director and actress have only 12 days to shoot the scenes in space.
Peresild embodies the role of a heart surgeon, who is sent into space to save the life of an astronaut.
It is reported that two cosmonauts, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, will take part in the film. The filming scenes will be carried out in the Russian section inside the station.
The mission to shoot the Russian film in space has raised some kind of controversy in Russia.
The idea of shooting a movie in space goes back to the head of the Russian space agency "Roskosmos", who at one time expelled the agency's chief of missions, due to a dispute over the filming project.
Sergei Krikalev, a veteran of space missions, returned to work days ago after widespread outrage over his dismissal.
Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornyenko told the BBC he was one of many who opposed the project.
He said the International Space Station is a "huge laboratory, and you shouldn't stand in the way of professional work."
The production of the film is being funded by Russia's Channel One, and a subsidiary of Roscosmos has announced that the project will not require money from the federal budget.
The Russian space agency has been in trouble for years, because of corruption that overshadowed the process of establishing a space base in the Far East.
Russia had threatened to withdraw from the International Space Agency within four years, due to the outdated equipment on board.
