MOSCOW. Sept 10 (Interfax) - The crew of the Soyuz MS-19 spacecraft, which includes the Vyzov (Challenge) movie production crew, has successfully passed preflight exams, the Cosmonaut Training Center said in a statement.
"The comprehensive exams have ended successfully for ISS Expedition 66 and their backups. Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, flight participants Klim Shipenko and Yulia Peresild, and their back-ups Oleg Artemyev, Alexei Dudin, and Alyona Mordovina have accomplished every assignment in simulators of the Soyuz spaceship and the Russian segment of the International Space Station," the statement said.
An interagency commission will confirm results of the crews' training at the Cosmonaut Training Center on September 16, 2021, it said.
Cosmonaut Training Center head Maxim Kharlamov said on September 8 that the Soyuz MS-19 crew completed flight preparations within a record period of about three months.
"The training program for spaceflight participants isn't new, but it was adapted for a specific project. This experience is important for everyone. It will be useful when training scientists, medics, and other non-cosmonaut professionals for short-term expeditions into orbit," Kharlamov was quoted as saying in a statement released by the center.
This was the shortest period yet for training flight participants, Kharlamov said.
On August 31, the training center said that actress Yulia Peresild, director Klim Shipenko, and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov, as well as their back-ups, cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, actress Alina Mordovina, and cameraman Alexei Dudin, were found fit for spaceflight.
The launch of Soyuz MS-19 is scheduled for October. It will carry the film crew, Shipenko and Peresild, and Shkaplerov, the commander of the spacecraft, who will be shooting the first feature film in space.
The film crew will spend around ten days in orbit. They will film on board the new Russian module Nauka, among other locations.