Cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov (commander) and the crew of the film The Challenge: actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko, were chosen to go and went to the ISS on the Soyuz MS-19.

[12][13] The back-up crew chosen after passing the medical committee was: New Drama Theater actress Alena Mordovina, director Alexei Dudin[14] and the commander Oleg Artemyev.

The film, which according to Dmitry Rogozin, head of Roscosmos, is an "experiment to see if Roscosmos can prepare two ordinary people to fly in about 3 or 4 months" has received opposition from the scientific and aerospace communities, as to the fact that they remove trained cosmonauts from their flights, a misuse of public money,[22] or even that using the station's resources for non-scientific purposes would be illegal.

[23] Sergei Krikalev, director of crewed programs at Roscosmos, reportedly lost his position by speaking out against the project,[24] but was reinstated after a few days following protests from cosmonauts on and off active duty.

[27] The ISS flight manifest drafted by Roscosmos in the fall of 2020 set the launch of the Prichal module for on 24 November 2021, with docking at Nauka's nadir port two days later.

[32] After the successful landing of Soyuz MS-18, Dmitry Rogozin revealed that Konstantin Ernst (Director General or CEO of Channel One) paid for Shipenko and Pereslid's seats.

[33] Pyotr Dubrov and Mark Vande Hei finally landed on 30 March 2022 on Soyuz MS-19 with commander Anton Skhaplerov.