In the year 2163, the starship Ikarie XB 1 is travelling to alpha centauri, to explore the 'white planet', a round trip that will take 5 years (18 months ship's time due to relativistic speeds). On route the ship encounters a derelict Earth ship dating from the late 20th century that contains poison gas and nuclear weapons. The exploring team accidently triggers one of the bombs, destroying the space-wreck and the one of the Ikarie's exploration shuttles. While the starship is being repaired, the ship drifts into a radiation field being emitted by a 'dark star' that renders the crew unconscious and seriously burns two people who were doing an EVA, one of whom cracks under pressure and threatens to destroy the ship if he isn't returned to Earth. Depiction of everyday life on the Ikarie is imaginative and plausible and the special effects and miniature work is outstanding, especially the scenes where the Ikarie's exploration pod docks on the derelict. For a cold-war film, Ikarie XB 1 is largely unpolitical. The origins of the heavily armed wreck, although hinted to be cold-war era 'western', are not explicit (at least in the subtitled version I watched), unlike the source novel (The Magellanic Cloud by Stanislaw Lem), in which the ship is American. The film is typical of Soviet-era science fiction: a bit slow moving but intelligent, detailed, well-made, sober at times but ultimately optimistic. Well-worth watching for any fan of the genre. Rights to the film were purchased by American International Pictures, who dubbed, shortened, and released it with an alternate 'twist ending' as "Voyage to the End of the Universe" (1963).