WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Brad Pitt, who plays the lead role of an astronaut in science fiction adventure film Ad Astra, will have the opportunity to discuss what it's like to live and work in space with a NASA crew member aboard the International Space Station.
Pitt's Earth-to-space call will be broadcast live at 11:35 a.m. EDT Monday on NASA Television, the U.S. space agency said. It will also be streamed live on NASA website.
NASA astronaut Nick Hague will answer questions from Pitt, who plays the role of Major Roy McBride, traveling across the solar system, including to the Moon and Mars.
During the last two decades, the International Space Station has been second home to several astronauts from U.S., Europe and Russia, who have been testing technologies, performing science research and developing the skills needed to explore farther from Earth.
Though the current state of human spaceflight has not reached the level of the story that is told in the science fiction, NASA provided visuals and some technical expertise for the film.
Hague and his crew-mates who are part of Expedition 60 recently watched Ad Astra during their downtime aboard the orbiting laboratory.
'We reviewed a script of Ad Astra early in production,' said Bert Ulrich, NASA's liaison officer for film and TV collaborations at the agency's headquarters in Washington. 'Although there was no NASA storyline, we provided some of the exciting images and footage for the film especially of the Moon and Mars. Sci-fi films like Ad Astra, the Martian, Interstellar, and Gravity take movie audiences out of this world incorporating some of NASA's most inspirational photography and footage,' he added.
NASA prepares to send the first woman and next man to the Moon in the next five years in collaboration with commercial and international partners.
Following the 2024 crew landing, NASA plans to send astronauts to the Moon every year. After gaining experience at the Moon testing new systems, NASA will take humanity's next giant leap, sending astronauts to Mars.
In the James Gray directed film, astronaut Roy McBride travels to the outer edges of the Solar System to find his missing father (Tommy Lee Jones) and unravel a mystery that threatens the survival of humans on Earth. His journey will uncover secrets that challenge the nature of human existence and its place in the cosmos.
Ad Astra had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last month, and is scheduled to be released in U.S. theaters on September 20.
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