SOYUZ MS-19 LAUNCH & DOCKING (INCLUDING RUSSIAN MOVIE CREW), Oct 5, 2021, Kazakhstan, 4:55 am ET

Russia will launch Soyuz MS-19 to the International Space Station (ISS) on October 5, 2021 at 4:55 am ET (1:55 pm local time at the launch site in Baikonur, Kazakhstan).  NASA TV launch  coverage begins at 4:15 am ET.

The three-person crew includes one professional astronaut, Anton Shkaplerov, and two private astronauts (or space tourists), a film director, Klim Shipenko, and an actress, Yulia Peresild.  She will portray a doctor in a Russian film, The Challenge, who must fly to a space station to tend to an injured cosmonaut.

They are taking the quick route to the ISS and docking will take place just over 3 hours later at 8:12 am ET.  NASA TV docking coverage begins at 7:30 am ET.

Hatches will open between Soyuz and ISS about 2 hours after docking.  NASA TV coverage begins at 9:30 am ET.

Although a lot of filming has been done in space before, especially the space shuttle and ISS for IMAX movies that are shown in theaters, this is the first time scenes are being filmed for a fictional movie, all part of the commercialization of space.

Peresild and Shipenko will remain on ISS for 12 days, returning with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Novitsky on Soyuz MS-18 on October 16 ET. Shkaplerov will remain for a routine 6-month mission.