A series of motion graphics under the credits leads us to a Soyuz spacecraft departing the International Space Station, bearing Garriott, Volkov, and Kononenko back to Earth.
Fincke and Chamitoff wave goodbye but express their relief at Garriott's leaving as he was annoying them with his constant talk of computer games.
Under contract with Garriott, Hickman quietly began development and pre-production under the cover title of Project Icarus.
Green screen elements of Richard's mother Helen Garriott were filmed in her home in Las Vegas.
Project Icarus had some very stringent requirements: The film could not impact the crew's work schedule, could not significantly add to the payload weight and volume restrictions, and had to be a fully executed and complete story.
In addition to the video elements, Hickman produced a PowerPoint presentation file containing the shooting directions and cue cards (both in English and Russian) which could be displayed on a laptop aboard the ISS for the crew during filming.
[6] Upon Garriott's return to his quarters in Star City, Russia immediately after his flight, he uploaded the HD video source files from his camera to a secure internet server, allowing Hickman to download them almost immediately to his office in South Jordan, Utah.
Garriott originally intended the film for release alongside documentary Man on a Mission, which follows Garriott's journey to space and was released on 13 January 2012,[1][2] but NASA initially refused permission, citing that the filming of Apogee of Fear had been "not part of his original Space Act agreement with NASA".