The film was restored in 2001 by director's son using film clips, shooting scripts, original camera outtakes, director's notes and surviving 70mm positive print.
The spaceport scene was filmed at Moscow's Sheremet'evo airport, Terminal A.
The images of the dying planet Dessa were filmed in Tajikistan, in the vicinity of an abandoned oil refinery near the city of Isfara.
Some space scenes were filmed underwater, using "hydraulic weightlessness" to simulate real gravity. Thus, the study of the destroyed alien spacecraft "Gaia" was filmed on the set installed at the bottom of the Yalta Hotel pool. To do this, they dipped a model spaceship into a pool, the actors wore diving equipment and helmets on top of them. To make the air bubbles exhaled by the actors invisible, they were filmed upside down, and then the bubbles in the frame went down rather than up.
Elena Metelkina was not an actress, but a model for GUM (a clothing store in Russia), having been chosen from photos in magazines where the director saw her. Elena had no experience in acting, but she proved to be great at acting in front of the camera. However, the artistic council vetoed her casting because she was bald, saying that a heroine could not be like that, so a white wig was given to her as well as to the other "ectogen clones".