Virgin Galactic Space Tourist Lina Borozdina: I Took the Ukrainian Flag into Space to Remind the World of the War in Ukraine

Lina Borozdina, a native of Odesa, made a tourist trip to space on a private Virgin Galactic ship. The US citizen, who is originally from Ukraine, went on a flight around the Earth with three other private astronauts. In an exclusive interview with Ukrinform, the astronaut shared her impressions of the space journey, her hard training and what she took with her on the trip.

- I would like to start with a semi-joking question: is the Earth a sphere or is it flat?

- The Earth is not flat. I saw it with my own eyes, and this is probably one of the most important achievements of my journey. For those people who believe that the world is flat, I would advise them to try to go to the edge and jump off it if they think so. This will save the human gene pool from the spread of rare cretinism, sorry for my boldness, I'm just kidding.

- Firstly, I congratulate you on such a great start and ask you to tell us a little bit about yourself before we start talking about your flight.

- A little bit of history... My dad, Yuriy (I was my dad's favourite), used to tell me stories about the space adventures as a little girl when he was putting me to bed. They began like this: it was a dark, dark night, two shadows climbed over the fence of the spaceport or cosmodrome, got inside and approached the spaceship at midnight, which was to take off the next morning.

Through the exhaust system, they got inside the ship... Of course, you know that technically it's not possible, but when you're a little kid, you think that you can get into a spaceship that way...

So they find themselves inside the spaceship and see a box. They open it, climb inside, close it and hide in it until the morning. When the spacecraft took off in the morning and reached zero gravity, the box, which was actually space food, would open, and these two, who were me and my cousin Inga, would float out and fly in zero gravity.

Listening to my dad, I imagined myself flying in the middle of the food, and it was always funny. So many years have passed that my dad doesn't even remember the details of what he told me back then, but I have a general idea of such journeys in my memory.

And from the age of 6, I had an obsessive idea to look for my favourite constellation, the Little Dipper, in the starry sky. I could always find it in the sky when it was dark enough, and I always kept an eye out for it. The Big Dipper is easy to see, but the Little Dipper is much harder to find, especially in a big city with bright lights.

Photo: Lina Borozdina. Source: instagram.com/redplanet2000 

So whenever I had the opportunity, I would go somewhere where it was darker at night, lie down on the ground and look at the sky, at the stars... As a child, I was not a very healthy child, I often had colds and runny noses, and I realised that because of my poor health, because of that strep throat, I would never be able to join the space programme. Therefore, a trip to space has always been a dream, and I have held on to this dream.

In 1991, I came to the United States of America. I came here to visit my aunt and cousin, the one with whom I had space adventures. And two weeks later, there was a coup in the Soviet Union, the borders were closed, and I couldn't go home for a long time, so I applied for political asylum and stayed in the United States. 

I got my first job in a biotechnology company and worked there while I was waiting for the real job I wanted to do. Later, as you know, I became a DNA specialist, started working as a biochemist, and this has been my career for over 32 years. At that time, as I said, at the beginning, it was very difficult for me. I had no financial support, so I had to work very hard.

I worked overtime and saved every penny. In a few years, I saved up enough money and bought my first house in 1999. It was a small apartment with two rooms: a bedroom and a living room. That's when I met my ex-husband and we got married.

Photo: Lina Borozdina. Source: instagram.com/redplanet2000/

At the time, I worked for a small company called Geo Biosciences, which was later acquired by Johnson and Johnson. Then, in 2005, a great event happened - I learned about Scaled Composites, about people who were going to go into space, saw a photo of the SpaceShip and for the first time heard the name of Sir Richard Branson from Virgin Galactic, who wanted to fulfil his childhood dream of going into space.

Branson is a multi-billionaire and could have simply bought a ticket to the space station, as Dennis Tito and a few other, you know, first commercial astronauts did. But he didn't do that, he saw an opportunity to make this dream realistic for everyone and said so on his TV show Rebel Billionaire. In fact, at the time, it was like a challenge, and the name of the space company and the slogan "Space is untouched territory"... It was something fantastic and incredible, but still, back in February, 19 years ago, I became very interested and followed him closely.

Branson launched a website called VirginGalactic.com and invited anyone interested in travelling into space to send inquiries to buy a ticket. I know that during the first week, the company received, imagine, 13,000 letters! Among those 13,000 was a letter from my ex-husband. He knew my story and my love for space and was wondering if something would come of it.

He sent that email, but I didn't know anything about it. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, I think it was two o'clock, I got a call on my landline, there were no mobile phones back then, and the woman called herself Susan Newsome. She didn't quite know what time it was in the US, because she was calling from the UK, from Virgin's office in London, which is located on Crescent Street - another very significant thing.

I didn't immediately understand who it was and what she wanted, but she said: we really like your story, and we would like to talk to you. Could you come to Los Angeles and see if you'd be interested? Because we're trying to get a group of people together for our first flight, people who really love space and from different parts of the world. You know, their goal was to gather people from almost every country in the world.

I was so excited and just thrilled! I went there and was offered to join the first group, the first hundred people who would go on a space journey. It was a great success and a great honour!

I immediately started thinking about how to do it, because the ticket price was $200,000, not $50,000 as it is now. It was a very big sum of money 19 years ago, and it was hard to find. Our entire house was not worth that much, and we were still paying what you call a mortgage on it. We had 30 years to pay for the house, but I was very excited and elated, so we applied for a second loan, or a second mortgage, against the house. That way we got the $200,000 we needed, and for me, my lifelong dream came true.

However, it was still just an idea, because it was the first SpaceShipOne, and it had to be converted into SpaceShipTwo to carry passengers. But I had already received my ticket, and it was in an envelope, in my little box for my most valuable things. It was a single sheet with an inscription: "Welcome to space".

You know, when I arrived here in the United States of America, I was visiting. I had a pair of jeans, a few T-shirts, small gifts for my aunt, uncle and cousin. At the border, at the entrance to America, when I was asked how long I was going to stay in the United States, I said three months. It was summertime, and the border guard looked at me and said: "You're going for three months, and you only have three pairs of underwear. Are you going to patch them up?" I said: "Yes".

It was really like something incredible, because all the people around me had big bags, suitcases, and I had this little bag for my things. That was all I had with me when I came here. At the time, I had about 13 Soviet rubles in my pocket, which was about 60 cents in the US at the exchange rate of the time.

So a little Odesa girl dreamed like a little child. Did I do everything possible to make my childhood dream come true? When I received the ticket, I didn't even think that nothing had happened yet, and that it was all just a dream. But there was an idea and people, a group of travellers, the first 100 people, who were called the Founders. We all had a common dream, including Sir Richard, who, by the way, is an incredible man.

He called us before the flight to wish us good luck and well-being, and obviously it was. It was very nice to get a phone call from him because, as I said, he is a very busy man, busy with everything he is trying to do for the world, including humanitarian efforts and trying to stop the war. To find time to call us and wish us luck was amazing and incredible. This whole journey has been incredible.

So, like I said, when I got that ticket, I thought: "Oh my God, we are going to go to space in 2007!". It was a dream, but unfortunately, unfortunate things happened, an accident and other setbacks, and the flight was postponed, including due to government regulations. Then there were misunderstandings with competitors, contracts were signed, drawings were handed over and a lot of effort was put in. I mean, Richard is the kind of person who doesn't give up or back down, he says, 'OK, we'll do it tomorrow.

But again, there was a delay, we had some very unfortunate events that happen in experimental aviation. You know, if you look at the history of flight, there was Icarus, which flew close to the sun and failed, there were the Wright brothers, the lunar lander - these are all great steps, but between these steps there were many trials and errors, many incidents.

In order to avoid accidents, our company wanted to make sure that flights were safe, and this takes time. In 2007, we developed the concept of a new, larger spacecraft, the model of which was presented in New York. I remember standing and holding this model, and in my small collection at home, I had only a model of the SpaceShipOne spacecraft on the shelf.

All these are the steps we took to get here, to the flight, and they always reminded me that my dream would come true one day. No matter what ups and downs I have experienced over the past 19 years - job changes, breast cancer, divorce - I have always held on to that ticket. It is the only thing that has mattered to me and has always supported me. Please don't misunderstand me.

I get a lot of positive and negative comments, questions about why I can't give the money for a space flight to someone who really needs it. If you talk to my friends and family in Odesa, they will tell you that I have never stopped helping them and taking care of them.

You know, I'm doing everything I can. Thirteen years ago, after my divorce, I started from scratch, fought cancer, had to sleep on a friend's couch while I was being treated because I had no place to live. After that, all I did was work hard again, save every penny and get back on my feet.

At the same time, I was still trying to help my family, to fulfil my family obligations, so to speak. It is very important for me to help my family. I'm not rich or famous, I get a regular salary, I pay my bills and, if I can, I help my family.

In my opinion, it is worth treating yourself to a flight, going to sit on a beach somewhere and looking at the blue water, which resembles the blue sky and just the beauty of this world. In peace and quiet, think about what I've been through, what I've been through, because sometimes life spins you around so much that you forget to stop and remember where you came from, what you've overcome, and how grateful you are for everything you have.

As I said, I still can't believe it happened. Today is Sunday and the flight took place only on Friday, and it still seems very surreal to me. I didn't believe it was really happening until the plane started moving down the runway. Then we started crying, and that was the first time I shed a tear.

- I have a few questions about that. It's hard to imagine how you felt emotionally and physically there, of course, but what were your emotions? How did you feel during the flight?

- You know, before the flight, I talked to a few fellow astronauts, in particular from our group, who had been in space. Two of them, Trevor Beatty and Ron Rosano, came to support us and share their experiences. I talked to my friends Sharon and Mark Hagel, who flew with Blue Origin, asked the pilots, asked everyone who had already flown and who had been there. Everybody said it takes a while to understand your own feelings, what you feel.

I don't know when exactly, but I felt like it started to burn, there was an extreme physical strain. I want to say that I'm in good shape, but it felt like an elephant was sitting on your chest and pressing down, and you were trying to move, and you were resting your face against something invisible. It's very similar to moving inside yourself. I'm not joking. I could feel my whole face moving to my neck and not ending.

Before the flight, I trained for some time, doing strength exercises. I studied how to behave in a ship in space under the guidance of our captain, CJ Sturkow, who is a great pilot. I think a lot of people don't know this about me, but I'm actually afraid of flying. And Trevor and I, that's why we've become friends over these 19 years. We started training together in the centrifuge, and eventually we both learnt to do aerobatics.

CJ was a very good teacher... So I learnt what to expect during the flight. But nothing, nothing compares to what you feel in an aeroplane, it comes on gradually, and it was most noticeable when the ship came out of the gamma turn and started to climb. I lie there listening, trying to hear what's going on in the cockpit, the captain's command, which means the rocket engine will be turned off.

I look up and see a red glow in the windows because you have to keep your head straight and look in front of you, which means losing control, gravitationally losing consciousness, so you have to tense your body and push the blood into your head. I was doing a three-day training, and when I saw this red glow, I thought: okay, I need to do this.

And then I heard the sounds again, and in a moment I realised that we were really up there and moving on. I thought: yes, we made it, I try to turn my head and I see through the window that we are still climbing. I mean, I know we're moving, but I'm sitting in the chair and I don't know where we're going up and down, I don't feel any of that. It's absolutely as if you have no idea which way you are facing the Earth.

So I turn my head and I see this indigo black colour, so black and black, and I turn my head some more and I see the Earth at the very edge at the bottom of the window. I mean, most of the window was covered in black because we were still going up, but I could see this glowing curve just out of the corner of the window.

Our globe, this little thin layer of atmosphere around it, it's so tiny, but what a wonderful colour! Such beauty, it's impossible to describe! I went to art school, I know all the colours, but I can't find the words for it. Everyone told me that it takes some time to realise what you see and how you feel. I was so impressed by what I saw that after my return, I woke up two mornings in a row and couldn't overcome the shock.

It's incredible! Waves of clouds all over the globe, a deep blue colour with many shades, and it really has different layers. There was white and an absolutely incredible blue colour. There was a slightly darker blue band and then, you know, a lighter blue band. But it was so bright against the background of this huge, boundless blackness. It was an incredible feeling to realise that this is all that protects us from the vacuum of space. I felt like a small particle of stardust.

When we were in space, we were filmed and broadcast to friends and family. My friends in Odesa all got together and watched the broadcast on a laptop, filmed it. They weren't allowed to share the footage until the flight was over, but after I landed, they started sending me small excerpts... These were my friends Halka and Oksana, my childhood friends, my first classmates, whom I became friends with when I came to them in fourth grade. After Galka posted my photo in a telegram, it seems that all the chaos began. I don't know how to say this, but everyone asks me how you feel. I say I don't know. I can't say what my emotions are now, they are like a rollercoaster, they change in a minute, and I say: "Well, nothing happened".

No, it did. What I'm trying to say is that I actually became an astronaut, I was in space, I flew 88+ kilometres, I was at the apogee and I saw the atmosphere much lower than me, much lower than me. I saw the darkness of the sky and the sunrise, behind which there were no stars that I wanted to see. So I will propose that the next flights should be made at night or at sunset so that people can see the stars.

Flying into space is incredible. I could not understand what was happening around me in the cabin. My crewmates were probably already doing flips in zero gravity, and I was just sitting there and couldn't even unbuckle all the belts, I took off two, and two more remained on my belt and kept me like that, clamped with a parachute under my shoulders. There is a special niche on each seat, and when you sit down, you have to put the parachute there, then lean back, sit on the seat and then fasten your seat belt.

So I'm sitting there, looking and just getting lost in the view. Then I start to realise that I need to unbuckle my seatbelt and try zero gravity. So I finally get free of the harness and make a turn in zero gravity, and at that moment the spacecraft starts to turn upside down with our seats. Then the ship returns to its original position and makes another turn, very slowly.

When the ship rotates like this while flying forward, it does not use fuel, it saves fuel, and it remains in the ship. What do the pilots do at this time? They kind of fire little engines on the wings that kind of push the spacecraft forward, these little engines. They told us: "Please don't get too close to the windows, because you might get hit."

You think you're floating, you don't feel it, but the ship is moving around you. So the pilots say: "Well, just grab onto something and stretch, and your legs will rise a little bit." And I'm holding on to the window and I see the world spinning, I see the curvature of the Earth already at the top of the window, because we're upside down. So, the Earth is right down there, and everywhere around is darkness, and it seems like it just can't be stopped, it goes on and on forever. There's nothing, no movement outside the ship, and then I see a light breeze from the engines on the wings, I see a little shine, like little stars shooting...

I look, and the Earth is already here, close by, and there, from the wing, floats a tiny piece of exhaust debris, nitrogen oxide, the remains of fuel from the engine. Nitrogen oxide becomes liquid in space and then solidifies... But it was, as I said, like floating upside down... So, it's floating here, but I'm already at another window and from that side I see the Sun in front of me. It seems to be rising, I see the sun's rays above, they shimmer and shine very brightly, like little falling stars. That's why I couldn't see the real stars, but I could imagine that they were there. I really wanted to see the cosmic blackness with stars on it. However, as I said, the most incredible thing was the view of the Earth, from which you could not take your eyes off.

My friends... One of my young friends is from Canada, and we met through Virgin Galactic. So, her boss Jason, she was his personal assistant, also had a ticket to fly into space, but unfortunately, he died of COVID. So she gave me his photo, his and hers, to take with me to space. That's how Jason really went to space, because it was his dream too. That's how we support each other.

In general, I have a lot of friends who have been with me all the way, all the time of this project, because it was very important to me. They know what I was waiting for, how much I wanted this flight. You know, I think when it happened, there were a lot of tears and a lot of boxes of tissues. I haven't seen most of the video footage yet, except for a few short videos that my friend Ian sent. He also took one picture, a screenshot. All of them were watching the live broadcast on big screens, from all the cameras, and I don't even remember what I was doing, I was almost in a fog.

Now some memories are starting to come back to me, after the shock of seeing the world from above... It feels like everything just disappeared at that moment. It was as if I was outside of time and space, as if I was frozen and couldn't do anything. My mind seemed to just want to stop working at that moment. And it was very, very quiet when I looked out into space, it was very quiet.

I've experienced something similar a few times in my life, when I visited the catacombs in the village of Nerubaiev, near Odesa, where partisans were hiding during the Second World War. You can take a tour and go down there. You go into the catacombs where they lived, and at some point the guide turns off the lights and asks everyone to be quiet.

When we went there with a school class, there were a lot of children, so there was a lot of noise. And once when I was in Odesa, I think in the 2000s, I hired a private guide to go and do it again. Maybe it was a little bit earlier, in 2000, or maybe 2006 or 2007, I don't remember exactly. But the point is that we went all the way down to the bottom of the catacombs, and he said he was going to turn off the lights, and we were all to be quiet. That's where you can feel the complete, absolute blackness and the absolute absence of noise. That's what it felt like.

I mean silence, because there was so much light in space, coming from the Sun and from the Earth, sunlight reflecting off the atmosphere, and it was like a big shining luminary. It was glowing, emitting a soft glow. But, you know, now it's hard to accurately convey the colours of that light, as I said, it will take me weeks, maybe months or even years to go over everything again and again and understand how it looked and felt. So, unfortunately, I cannot describe it now.

As I said, no photo can convey what happened there, how incredibly quiet it was. Just for that moment in space, time seemed to stand still, to stop... It felt something like this... I finally let go when we stabilised at the apogee, and I remember seeing that I was near my seat and holding onto it with my hand. Then I said to myself: "Okay, I have to let go of the seat and see what zero gravity is like."

So I moved, I don't know how. Everything affected me differently compared to other people. But I mean, all I saw was this incredible view, and I said to myself: "Okay, I'm going to look out the window". This window was looking right at the Earth, and I see the desert, I see the clouds, and the tracks, tracks, tracks that stretch far away and seem like just brown stripes.

Then I thought that this is good, but I still need to go and look out the other window. And at that moment we start to descend, and I kind of floated in the other direction, asking myself: "Okay, where is the window?". Then I saw it, got closer, looked at it, and had a different thought in my head: "I know that we have to go back to our seats soon, but until that happens, I still want to look."

Then I turn around and try to sit in my seat before the pilot says to take your seats: "Get in your seats, get ready"... We practised all this before the flight, but when you're up there, it's different... It was hard for me to remember what to do because of the shock and awe of the scenery. So I thought something like, okay, I'll try. I swam back to the seat, grabbed the seat belt to stabilise myself, and it was somehow clumsy and not very graceful.

I have to tell you that in the absence of gravity, it's not that easy. I flop down on my seat and then remember that I forgot to unfasten my harness from the straps, which we practised so often. The seats have little velcro straps that attach to the straps when they are off, so when you get back in the seat, you have to not sit on them. And I, of course, sat on the straps.

So I pushed back, looked at the chair and... I was in a stupor, I couldn't see the straps. I'm thinking, where are they? And suddenly I remember, oh my God, I forgot to fasten them with Velcro! Because, as I said, I was so impressed that I had just taken off, I was like hypnotised. I forgot everything, all my studies flew out the window, literally out the window. I start catching the straps, looking for the fasteners, finally get them, click them, pulling the lock, but still trying to see the view.

Then the pilot announces: "G1". This is the moment when we are at the level of Earth's gravity and begin to feel the force of the earth's gravity. You need to perform a manoeuvre to avoid overloading, but it doesn't matter which way you look then, because gravity permeates your entire body. In such a situation, it is forbidden to look out the window for a long time, because you may feel dizzy. So I looked out again, took the last strap and thought: "Okay, I got what I wanted." The force of gravity was becoming more and more noticeable. That's it, the harness was securing my head, and I was looking straight at the seat in front of me, unable to turn around and see the views I had enjoyed so much.

My only regret was that I panicked a little bit because I couldn't get the harness right. Then gravity hit and, as I say, sitting in the chair, I want to think about the meaning of life. At this time, the pilots are counting down: 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, and then stop.

We were descending at an accelerating speed... You know, people talk about it, but I saw it, I was there, and it's a completely different feeling. I think it's a matter of physical fitness. In addition, my partner and I practised checking each other before the flight. Robbie and Franz separately because they were sitting in front, and me and Neil separately because we were sitting in the back.

You sit opposite each other and check each other visually, make sure everything is secured. The pilots ask you questions, tell you to make head signals, how you feel, if you're not sick, if you're okay. Then they ask about your partner, and if your partner is not okay, you need to contact the pilots on the radio and tell them.

I don't know if it was easier going down or up, it's hard to say. You know, Neil is 40 years old, he's a pilot, he's got a lot of experience, he's an experienced pilot, he's done aerobatics and all sorts of things in the air. So he said it was one of the hardest flights he's ever had, the hardest thing he's ever experienced. He said he didn't expect such a heavy load. You know, no simulators or flight simulators can prepare you for this.

We did dives, but I think you can only reach that point of overload gradually. But during the re-entry and descent, everything happened quickly, and it started to burn. Again, it was as if an invisible elephant came up and sat on top of me. When I thought about it, I felt funny, but it was something very, very hard.

I realise that I repeat this story every time, but it's because I'm trying to put everything in a certain sequence. There are just so many things that happened... You know, it was kind of crazy. I've got another interview coming up, so I'm going to have to let you guys go if you don't have any more questions.

- I have one more very important question. You're showing me pictures of people with Ukrainian flags and Ukrainian stripes.

- You know, firstly, I want to thank all Ukrainians, and especially women, for the great support and love I have received from them. I can say that they have become my source of inspiration. I didn't plan on it, but I received so much support from so many women in Ukraine who said: "We are keeping our fingers crossed that you will make it! Good luck on your journey! We are rooting for you!".

From the first day, when, as I said, my friends posted my photo, something incredible happened. So much support, so much love from women!

I flew into space with the Ukrainian flag, I was wearing it. And not just on my sleeve, I actually had the flag in my pocket. We weren't allowed to open anything inside the ship, so that something extraordinary wouldn't happen, everything had to stay closed, under lock and key.

And I can explain why it was necessary to have a Ukrainian flag that had just been in space. It was held by my friends, future astronauts and those who had already flown into space, people from different cultures, with different skin colours and different nationalities. My group is very inclusive, and my friends are a reflection of me and the kind of person I am.

So, I have friends from Japan, Canada, Europe, South America, the United States of America. And they all supported me and support Ukraine. They were with me, and we all unfurled the flag. I will send you a photo.

We unfurled two flags: the flag of Freedom and the flag of Ukraine, which were signed and given to us by Ukrainian children... I just wanted to make sure that the world does not forget what is happening in Ukraine, because, as you know, today's news is tomorrow's memory. 

My goal is to remind people about the war, because at first, when it started, the world was united, but now it's like old news…

I want to remind the world of what is happening in Ukraine: that there is still a war going on, children are still dying, but people are still fighting. And that you know. From there. You can see the borders. You can see the hatred. Intolerance towards humanity. We are so insignificant. We are just a small particle of stardust in this vastness of the Universe.

We have to take care of each other. Do you know what I call my group of friends who came to support me? We are a community of people. Not because you are black, you are Asian, you are white. Not because you're gay or straight. No. My group of friends are human beings, we are a human race that we should love and care for each other. And I understand that people need to remember that the war is still going on, and it's getting worse. I don't want people to forget, and that's one of the big things I wanted to do. That's why I wanted to bring my flag, my country's flag, both my countries' flag, because America has been my home for many years, but my heart is where I was born.

And I also wanted to send a message to all women, little girls: never stop dreaming, dreams do come true! You and I, all women, should not only give birth to children, wash dishes or clean the kitchen. We need to be proud of ourselves and strive to reach for the stars.

I sincerely want to share my love for all the support I have received this week from Ukraine. For the good wishes from entire cities, from many men and women, people I have never met, who wrote me wishes of success and a safe flight. Thank you all! Our fingers are crossed for you. 

Glory to Ukraine!

By Oleg Sambir

Watch the video version of the interview on Ukrinform TV.