The film crew was accompanied by cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, Oleg Novitsky, and Pyotr Dubrov, and NASA astronaut Mark T. Vande Hei.

The Challenge marks the first collaboration between the Russian space corporation Roscosmos and the public broadcaster Channel One, with an approximate budget of around 1.155 billion rubles.

[5] The Challenge premiered on Cosmonautics Day[5] and was theatrically released in Serbia and Russia on 20 April 2023 by Central Partnership, on CosMAX, an analogue of IMAX.

[9][10] During a spacewalk, Cosmonaut Oleg Bogdanov falls under a stream of debris and sustains a serious lung injury, requiring urgent medical care.

Ten years earlier, her husband was killed in a car accident in which Belyaeva was the driver; she had driven through a red light to reach the hospital, where she was urgently needed.

Two Soyuz crew members will assist Belyaeva on her mission: two Roscosmos cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov, who will accompany her to orbit, and Pyotr Kudryavtsev, who is already stationed on the ISS.

Nikolaev, who has remained on Earth but is watching the broadcast operation, suggests an unexpected and risky solution based upon a shared experience with Belyaeva during training.

Cameos Other cast members The screening process began on 15 March 2021,[11] as a joint project between Russia's federal space corporation Roscosmos, the state-controlled television network Channel One and production company Yellow, Black and White.

The streaming service START took part in partnership with Tinkoff Bank and MegaFon, a company supported by the Cinema Fund Russia.

According to Konstantin Ernst, Director General of Channel One, the filmmakers wanted to confirm Russia's power in the space sector and restore the prestige of the cosmonaut profession in the eyes of the younger generation (as an example, Yulia Peresild herself did not dream of spaceflight as a child).

[14] The unique experience of express training for non-professional flight may subsequently be useful for sending scientists or doctors into space on an urgent basis.

[11] Due to the allocation of seats on flights to the International Space Station, the flight of the director and actress necessitated rearranging mission lengths of the professional astronauts and cosmonauts, including extending the mission length of the on-orbit crew, U.S. astronaut Mark Vande Hei and his Russian cosmonaut counterparts, from six months to 1 year.

[22] On 30 July, the spacecraft had its pre-launch preparation started,[23] and on 31 August, the medical committee announced that both the main and reserve crew were healthy for spaceflight.

[24] On 12 September, First Channel aired a reality show called The Challenge: The First in Space, about the specifics of the selection and training of project participants.

[33] In addition, a pavilion was erected specifically for the film, imitating the RKA Mission Control Center of the Roscosmos State Corporation.

[36][37] Sergei Krikalev, director of crewed programs at Roscosmos, reportedly lost his position by speaking out against the project,[38] but was reinstated ten days later following protests from cosmonauts on and off active duty.

[41][42] On 6 April 2023, the premiere took place on Okhotny Ryad Street, under the descent module of the Soyuz MS-18 spacecraft that was installed near Manezhnaya Square, Moscow.

32 at the Exhibition of Achievements of National Economy hosted the presentation and cancellation ceremony for a new postage stamp, part of the country's "Modern Russian Cinematography" series, depicting the movie's poster art.

As reported by Vedomosti, Central Partnership has developed a new cinema format that contains technical characteristics similar to IMAX, called CosMAX.

[48] The film had a special screening on 12 April 2023 at a solemn event for politicians dedicated to Cosmonautics Day at the State Kremlin Palace,[49][50] as well as its world premiere at the Karo 11 October cinema center on New Arbat Avenue in Moscow.

They were joined by cosmonauts Dmitry Petelin, Sergey Prokopyev and Andrey Fedyaev, and seven other American and Emirati astronauts, all of whom had seen the film onboard the ISS.

[59] Film critics praised the visuals and Peresild's acting, but were divided about the melodramatic parts of the plot, supposed ideology, and how the movie deals with representation of women in space.