The Big Space Travel

Did You Know?

• The film was shot over approximately two years.
• Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov served as technical advisor and casting director, and also had a cameo role.
• The soundtrack by beginning composer Alexey Rybnikov received significant airplay in the Soviet Union.

Plot

Three teenagers—Sveta Ishenova from Bukhara, Sasha Ivanenko from Donetsk, and Muscovite Fedya Druzhinin—win the All-Union Children's Space Competition. After completing special training, they embark on the first ever children's flight aboard the Astra spacecraft. During the flight, the only adult on board, Captain Egor Kalinovsky, falls ill and is placed in isolation. A series of short-term emergencies forces the young astronauts to make independent decisions, where any mistake could destroy the crew and ship. After overcoming all tests, they discover the Astra is an underground simulator; the expedition never left Earth and was a psychological experiment to assess the feasibility of real children's spaceflight. Fedya, who learned the truth before launch, kept it secret to ensure the experiment's success. Upon exiting the simulator, all three are greeted as real space heroes at the Flight Control Center.