Film crew to blast off from Russian launch site to make first movie in space

Actress Yulia Peresild, director Klim Shipenko, right, and cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (Roscosmos Space Agency via AP)

In a historic first, Russia is to launch an actor and a director into space to make a feature film in orbit.

The nation’s space chief hailed the project as a chance to raise the prestige of Russia’s space programme.