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Rumors began to swirl in 2020 that Tom Cruise, the actor who loves to do his own stunts, would soon make history, filming the first feature-length movie to be shot in space. According to the BBC, Cruise began talks with NASA and Elon Musk's SpaceX to produce a movie aboard the International Space Station.

That film is still expected to happen, but Russian filmmakers beat them all to the historical punch, releasing "Vyzov" ("The Challenge"), filmed entirely aboard the ISS in 2021 and released this year.

"Vyzov'' is about Zhenya Belyaeva (Yulia Peresild, "Battle for Sevastopol"), a surgeon who has to go to the International Space Station to perform heart surgery on an ailing cosmonaut who cannot return to Earth. Real-world cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy plays the fictional cosmonaut with a heart problem.

The titular challenge for Belyaeva isn't just performing open heart surgery in zero gravity, it's also being taken seriously by an all-male crew aboard the ISS.

The movie was produced by Russian state media to promote the Russian Space Agency, Roscosmos, which helped to produce the film. Roscosmos also held the casting call that hired Peresild for the movie. Not only did she have to submit an audition tape like any other actress, she had to undergo the same kind of medical, mental and physical tests as any other cosmonaut.

She was, after all, going to space for real.

Peresild and her understudy had to prepare for the shoot with centrifuge and vibration testing, zero-gravity training flights and parachute training. Their preparations for the film were extensively documented by Russian state media leading up to their departure for the space station.

Anton Shkaplerov, another real-life cosmonaut, accompanied Peresild and director Klim Shipenko to the ISS in October 2021. They filmed "Vyzov" there in 12 days before returning to Earth via a parachute landing in Kazakhstan. The actress and director had to then undergo a 10-day rehabilitation program to readjust to the effects of gravity.

It was "part of a large-scale scientific and educational project, which also includes a series of documentaries to be shot about the rocket and space industry enterprises and specialists involved in the manufacturing of launch vehicles, spacecraft and ground space infrastructure," Roscosmos said in a statement.

Russia invaded Ukraine just a few months after principal photography wrapped on the film. In July 2022, Russia announced it would leave the International Space Station entirely by 2024.

"Vyzov" premiered in theaters across Russia on April 20, 2023, and while it's the first feature-length film shot entirely in space, it's not the only movie shot aboard the ISS.

In 2002, the documentary IMAX: Space Station, narrated by Tom Cruise, was released. It was the first 3D film shot in space. In 2012, Richard Garriott, a businessman and space tourist, released the eight-minute-long "Apogee of Fear," the first narrative film shot aboard the ISS.

As of January 2023, SpaceX and Cruise were still planning to make a movie aboard the ISS, and still had plans for making history: the first spacewalk for a feature film.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at blake.stilwell@military.com. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on LinkedIn.

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Russians Beat Tom Cruise and Elon Musk to the First Film Shot in Space - Military.com

After gaining notice from Twitter owner Elon Musk, Miladys non-fungible token (NFT) collection increased, bringing comparisons to Musks handling of dogecoin (DOGE).

American entrepreneur Elon Musk created a meme on May 10 using photographs from the Milady nonfungible tokens (NFT) collection. Soon after, the Milady NFTs floor price increased from 3.8 Ether to as far as 7.3 ETH before dropping to 5.69 ETH.

Milady is an album of 10,000 anime profile pictures NFTs that was created in 2021 by the digital arts company Remilia and is inspired by street style tribes. Remilia is a series created by artist Charlotte Fang, who also invented the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO).

Musk tweeted a meme from the Milady Makers NFT community, which has since been watched more than 32 million times. Nobody knew that Musk was arranging a rocket launch this week, but thats precisely what occurred. This week, sales of Milady NFTs reached a record high of US$217 million as they propelled the rest of the market along with them.

The term Milady is a play on the phrase my lady, which originally denoted a noblewoman in a courteous manner but has now come to refer to nice guys and overdone gallantry in online forums. Elon Musk made a reference to the moniker four years before the Milady NFT tweet, adding, My shield is yours.

Milady is a profile-pic (PFP) NFT that comprises of 9,823 pictures of faces with wide-eyed, innocent expressions. Charlotte Fang, also known as Charlie Fang, the projects originator, has come under fire for disseminating conspiracy theories and offensive statements despite the collections innocent appearance.

After debates, the floor price of Milady NFTs decreased by more than 50% in May 2022. Milady has maintained its appeal throughout Web 3 communities despite controversy. Su Zhu, co-founder of the bankrupt Singaporean hedge firm Three Arrows Capital, is an ardent Milady collector and routinely promotes the collection to his followers in addition to being supported by Elon Musk. The collection has had a total volume traded on OpenSea of 39,659 ETH as of right now.

Because Binance added Bitcoin NFTs into its marketplace, Ordinals now have a new channel to promote to the general public without having to be tech-savvy. NFTs on the OG blockchain were booming, and BRC-20s, a new variant of Ordinal, were gaining favor. BRC-20s are the meme currencies of Ethereum for Bitcoin, but they also function fundamentally in a similar way to an NFT collection. In a subsequent issue of On Deck, well provide a technical examination of these new Bitcoin Ordinals.

This week saw two developments related to the Pudgy Penguins initiative, which strengthened their heartwarming tale. They first revealed a new collaboration with the WME talent agency, which puts them closer to television, video games, and other forms of popular entertainment. The cute team then announced that they had secured US$9 million in startup capital as a response. Not bad for a project that was on the verge of failure prior to being acquired by marketing guru Luca Schnetzler.

Although its doubtful that the Pudgy Penguins NFT sales had much of an influence on the market, the good news arriving during a bear market was a pleasant respite and served as a brief reminder to everyone that there is actual growth taking place in this country.

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Milady spikes similar to Dogecoin After the Elon Musk's Tweet - The Coin Republic

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Tesla CEO Elon Musk joined Texas Governor Greg Abbott to break ground at the site of the electric vehicle maker's new lithium refinery in Corpus Christi on Monday.

Tesla plans to invest $375 million to build the facility on the Gulf coast that will help it secure a domestic supply of lithium hydroxide, a key ingredient used to make batteries for its electric vehicles, and its home- and utility-scale batteries.

Musk said that Tesla is aiming to produce enough battery-grade lithium at the refinery to manufacture one million vehicles per year, and to produce more lithium than the rest of North America's refining capacity combined there.

Mining company Albemarle announced plans to invest $1.3 billion in a new lithium processing facility in South Carolina in March.

According to filings with the Texas Comptroller's office, Tesla specifically plans to construct a "battery-grade lithium hydroxide refining facility," and other "facilities to support other types of battery materials processing, refining and manufacturing and ancillary manufacturing operations in support of Tesla's sustainable product line."

The company promised in its filings that "the process Tesla will use is innovative and designed to consume less hazardous reagents and create usable byproducts compared to the conventional process."

On Monday, Musk claimed, "There's no toxic emissions or anything -- you could live right in the middle of the refinery and not suffer any ill effects."

Tesla's battery raw material and recycling leader, Turner Caldwell, said at the event that the company would find "beneficial use opportunities" for the byproduct of its lithium, which they expect to be mostly sand and limestone.

Typically, refining ore into battery-grade lithium requires an industrial process that includes crushing raw material, heating it at a high temperature, and mixing it in a slurry with acids. One of the acids used in lithium processing typically is hydrochloric acid, which is a hazardous air pollutant under the U.S. Clean Air Act.

Caldwell and Musk did not disclose the specific chemistry the company would rely upon for processing.

Last year in April, Musk said Tesla may need to get into lithium refiningbecause the cost of the metal had "gone to insane levels." Lithium prices have significantly declined since he made those remarks.

However, China still controls more than half of the world's lithium processing and refining capacity while the U.S. has recently controlled just 1%. Musk said the availability of battery-grade lithium was a "fundamental chokepoint" for the electric vehicle industry and others.

Governor Abbott, a Republican, praised Elon Musk as the greatest entrepreneur on Earth.

"Texas wants to be able to be self-reliant, not dependent upon any foreign hostile nation for what we need," he said.

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Elon Musk and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott break ground on Tesla lithium refinery - CNBC

Tesla, Inc. TSLA stock pulled back on Friday amid rumors that Elon Musk could give up the CEO role at the electric vehicle company.

What Happened: Musk rubbished the rumors and reiterated his commitment to Tesla. His comments came in response to a follower who tagged him and asked for confirmation to The Wall Street Journal that he isn't stepping down from Tesla.

See Also: Best Electric Vehicle Stocks

For the unversed, the Journal carried a report that profiled Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn, suggesting that he is the one calling the shots.

In reply, Musk said, "Obviously, bringing on Linda allows me to devote more time to Tesla, which is exactly what I will be doing!"

Musk was referring to handing over the reins of Twitter to Linda Yaccarino, former NBCUniversal executive. This is widely expected to free up the tech entrepreneurs time so that he can focus on his other ventures, including Tesla.

When the billionaire confirmed in the late afternoon on Thursday, Tesla stock spiked higher. Friday's premarket movement in the stock also suggested strength. But as the WSJ report was quoted by other news sites and rumors spread around Musk easing out of the Tesla CEO role, the stock slid throughout the morning session on Friday and then went about a consolidation move at the depressed level in the afternoon.

Price Action: The stock ended Friday's session at $167.20, down 0.40%, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Check out more of Benzingas Future Of Mobility coverage byfollowing this link.

Read Next: Cathie Wood Unfazed By Autopilot Concerns, Calls Teslas FSD Most Impactful AI Project

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Tesla Investors, Relax! Elon Musk Says He Isn't Going Anywhere ... - Benzinga

Tesla, Inc. TSLA was hit with negative headlines on Friday, when reports revealed a massive recall of 1.1 million vehicles by Chinese regulators.

China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said that the recall was issued in response to a problem preventing drivers from choosing the regenerative braking system and the lack of a warning when the accelerator pedal is pressed hard for a long time.

According to the agency, both issues increase the risk of collision and pose a safety hazard.

SAMR also said in its release that Tesla China intends to execute over-the-air upgrades to resolve the recalled vehicles issues.

Media coverage of the recall has since appeared to enrage Tesla fans and, even, disappoint CEO Elon Musk.

On Friday, a Tesla influencer tweeted a Community Note or a note that Twitter contributors can leave on any tweet that called out a Bloomberg tweet on Tesla's response to the "recall. The note said that there was no physical recall involved and that the recall itself would be an over-the-air software update.

See Also: Everything You Need To Know About Tesla Stock

Musk replied to the influencers tweet, saying, "When will they learn sigh."

In response, the influencer said outlets would learn as soon as the "clickbait stops working."

Read Next: Will Elon Musk Heed This One Advice From Warren Buffett In An Effort To Lift Teslas Sagging Stock? If You Could Buy Dollar Bills For 80 Cents

Tesla closed Fridays session down 2.38% at $167.98, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Check out more of Benzingas Future Of Mobility coverage byfollowing this link.

Photo: NVIDIA Corporation via flickr

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Elon Musk Reacts To Media Coverage Of 1.1M Tesla China Recall ... - Benzinga