Atlanta, GA
January 27, 2024
As one who has little interest scaling mountains, jumping from planes, or swimming with sharks, I’m often happy to live vicariously thru others.
Yesterday may have been the best opportunity I’ll ever have. For half an hour, we watched my wife’s cousin orbit the earth.
Like my better half, Lina Borozdina grew up in Odessa, Ukraine. But whereas Rita immigrated to Georgia as a ten year-old girl, her cousin came to California as a young woman.
Yet from the time she was a child, Lina had wanted to go much further than that.
We last saw her in San Diego six years ago. At that time, we were the ones embarking on a voyage, boarding a ship to traverse the Panama Canal.
Being a civil engineer, that ditch was a marvel I felt compelled to see. But it wasn’t near the desire that inspired Lina’s dream. Nor was it as difficult to fulfill.
Since she was a small girl, Lina had wanted to travel to space. Yesterday, she proved she could.
Having relocated from San Diego, Lina now lives in Las Vegas…not too far from Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic’s commercial hangar in the New Mexico desert.
She booked her flight more than a decade ago. Before launch, and after rigorous health screenings, she completed several days of training to prepare for her trip. At ten o’clock Friday morning, she finally took off.
Thru a private link Lina sent us, the video started about twenty minutes after lift off. By the time online coverage began, the four astronauts were strapped in their seats, 40,000 feet in the air.
Between two fuselages atop the launch platform VMS Eve, the VSS Unity carried the customers and crew of flight Galactic 06. This was the sixth Virgin Galactic commercial flight in the last eight months, and the eleventh overall.
The Unity is the second “SpaceShipTwo” plane in the Virgin Galactic fleet. The first, the Enterprise, was inauspiciously destroyed during a test flight in 2014.
That’s reason enough that, on the live stream, the astronauts appeared eager and anxious as they ascended the stratosphere. In the back right seat watching our little globe recede, Lina clutched her harness as she tapped her feet.
A few seconds later…at about 50,000 feet above the earth…the Unity detached. In an instant, its rockets propelled it up another forty miles, traveling three times the speed of sound, to the outer atmosphere at the edge of space.
At the apex, the plane spent several minutes at zero gravity, allowing passengers to float within as they admired the earth below. After (too briefly) absorbing the view, the astronauts again buckled up.
On the return, they endured a force six times their planet’s gravitational pull (6G). With gravity tugging them toward the ground, aerodynamic drag reduced speed to soften the landing.
The Unity came in as a glider. With no engine, it has no wheels. Within about an hour of departure, the vessel came back into view. Thru clear skies, it descended above the vast expanse of southern New Mexico, and skidded home for a safe return.
After about fifteen minutes, the astronauts were able to come out of the plane. All were visibly…and justifiably…moved. Despite ample preparation for a bumpy ride, Lina described it as “so smooth, very seamless”, though she admitted that “going up, the boost was rough. It was a lot of G’s.”
She also said that before lift off, she had a hard time deciding her “mission” for this trip of a lifetime. But afterward, a big one came to mind.
“Number one”, she assured us skeptics, “it’s not flat!”
Then, after achieving what must’ve seemed an impossible dream, she spoke of inspiring children to pursue their calling, and to never give up. As the first female Ukrainian to go to space, she never did. She’s earned her credentials, and they can’t be taken.
Much as Lina longed to leave the earth, this trip wasn’t a lark. Any number of possible malfunctions risked her life. The Enterprise crashed. We all saw the Challenger explode. This adventure took as much courage as craving. And more of either than most of us can muster.
I admire Lina, and am thankful for her. We should all be grateful there are people among us who know that to reach the sky, they must seek the stars.
JD
"It's not flat" best line ever!
This is Wonderous and it must have been thrilling for Lina and all of you. What a marvellous opportunity and some might say 'lucky' but then the harder we work the 'luckier' I become!
Thank you so much for sharing this story. I actually wasn't aware that the Branson space project was at such an 'advanced' stage, I aught to get out more... I imagine this will be commonplace once exotic technology is released which doubtless has been kept from us, namely anti-gravity, but for now this lights up the minds and hearts for those that feel to explore the endless possibilities life affords us.
I'm also happy she stated we live on a globe, which I suspected, which insired me to share the above, perhaps Nassim Haramein might be quite correct that our gravity is created by a dying black hole the size of a beachball at the center of the planet called by some historically 'the black sun' and magma is simply created by the infentesimal movement of the plates weight & pressure causing the required heat to liquify rock and perhaps create oil oozing from coolong rock something like shilagit, idk.
Anyway, thank you for sharing your joy. Blessings of insight from the Tipperary Mountains to your dear family who must be pinching themselves! 😃 👏👏👏
💖🙏💫