Think the internet can't launch you into space? It can, though it still depends mostly on you.
Have you heard of Tatyana Ivanova, who dreams of becoming (and, I'm sure, will become) the first Bulgarian woman cosmonaut?
If not, it's time to meet this radiant, charismatic girl reaching for the stars. And even if you already know her, stay here so we can talk about the next big step on the road to her dream…
Of the Flying Kind
A person really is as big as their dreams. With one more condition, though: that they treat those dreams not as excuses or fantasies, but as something they are ready to fight for. No matter how distant they seem, how high and supposedly unattainable. No matter how often they are told that something is impossible or pointless.
That is when the whole world rolls up its sleeves to help. Even the Bulgarian groups on social media, famous as they are for their support, positivity and optimism.
It's 2018. Tatyana Ivanova is 15, at a student camp in Turkey run on a NASA program. The young people are shown a film about space that opens with the sentence “Imagine that you are this astronaut.”
And she imagines it. She imagines it so vividly that today, four years later, she has already taken huge strides toward that dream. The latest news is that she has been accepted to study space engineering at a leading American university. The tuition looks impossibly high for a girl from an ordinary Bulgarian family… but she is the last person to give up that easily.
Through Hardships to the Stars
The fundraising campaign takes off astonishingly fast. Not long ago I told the story of the platform Podkrepi.bg (roughly “Support.bg”), an impressive volunteer venture that was born as an idea in a group for programmers. That is the platform Tatyana chooses when she looks for help on the road to her dream.
And the result is astonishing! The campaign raised the necessary funds in just two weeks, long, long before the deadline!
Earth in the Porthole
One thing is certain: becoming a cosmonaut is anything but easy. She knows it well and has a more than sober view of things. So far about 630 people have flown beyond Earth (the number is slightly disputed, because there are different definitions). Of them, barely 70 are women. And, as we well know, only two are Bulgarians. Our country is not even a member of the European Space Agency.
On top of that, to be selected as a cosmonaut you have to meet extremely strict physical requirements, have a very serious education and a string of certificates in all sorts of fields. Your chances rise considerably if you're in the military.
Everything said so far could be downright discouraging… but not for this strong girl, who is determined to do everything in her power.
So far she has been through two training camps modeled on NASA's, and this year she completed the first in a series of basic astronaut courses. It tests how the body reacts to high pressure and zero gravity. She is also making progress in courses on responding to extreme situations and on deep-sea diving.
She describes meeting our first cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, who flew to the Salyut 6 space station in 1979, as “like someone who wants to be a basketball player getting to meet Michael Jordan.”
She says she is a space ambassador. She is trying to help our country finally become a member of the European agency. There is a curious story about how, through some elaborate organizing, she managed to be the first person President Rumen Radev shook hands with when he came to her hometown of Dobrich, in northeastern Bulgaria. All just so she could tell him, too, how important a subject space is.
Flying Thoughts
What has been the hardest part so far? No, not the physical effort, nor the studying in so many different fields. “Standing up to the people who tell me there's no way it can happen,” says Tanya. “It really hurts when I see that I'm giving everything I've got to push forward and work on my goals, and there are people who belittle them. That's just my character, I somehow see the good in everyone, and it's very hard for me to accept that not everyone means well.”
In times when rockets are flying over Europe too, only military ones, it is wonderful when someone keeps dreaming of the other rockets, the ones that send us to other worlds.
No, don't imagine her as someone buried in her studies at the expense of real life. Before she set out on the path of this dream, her great weakness was literature; she has been writing since she was seven. She has published a poetry collection and taken part in several joint ones. She writes poems, essays, short stories, song lyrics. For a long time she was the drummer in a rock band, and she danced modern ballet for 10 years.
The Flying Classroom
But let's get back to the practical side. From here on there are many more courses ahead and, most importantly, the bachelor's degree from the university that accepted her.
“Education is definitely a priority. Next summer I want to complete all the diving levels and start flying lessons. Right now I'm starting work on a special project with ESA studying radiation in space. I'm really excited, because I've ended up in an environment that pulls me forward, and new opportunities keep coming up,” Tatyana says with undisguised enthusiasm.
In her view, the hardest thing on the road to the stars won't be the physical training but being a very good “multitasker,” since space flight is a field that takes in many other disciplines. “I know there are many more people like me building their résumés, and what makes each candidate stand out is the energy they carry inside them. I even think the mental preparation will be much harder than the physical.”
“Sometimes I really do feel like dropping everything, not because I want to give up, but because there are days when I just want to be with my family and friends, to do simple things, to read books. To cook with my mom and grandma,” says the flying girl. “But there's no way I'll give up or surrender.”
A Girl from Dobruja in Space
From here on, a lot also depends on support, because every one of the next steps comes with extra costs. Tanya is grateful from the bottom of her heart for how the campaign has gone. She is especially touched by the donations of just a few leva (a couple of dollars) each, which show that many people, even those struggling financially, see themselves in her dream.
“I was hugely surprised that the campaign took off so fast. I was really afraid to ask people for help, because after all, this is a university. Many people donate because they once had the same dream. I hope I've shown, with everything I've described, that I'm extremely serious and doing everything that depends on me. I know you're supposed to cut your coat according to your cloth, but look how many, many people are supporting me!”
Winged Words
“In the 21st century, society's opinion matters a great deal. Not everyone dares to chase their dreams and set high goals, because they don't know how they'll be received,” says Tatyana. “It's good to be grateful, but at the same time I realize how people, when they chase their dreams, very often forget the basic things that hold us together as human beings: love, for example, starting a family, being a good person. But I also see people who, say, don't have a remarkable career, yet have gathered so many life lessons, so many skills, that others can only dream of.”
She says she fights so stubbornly mostly to motivate more young people. “My goals don't end with my education. I have dedicated myself to a bigger mission: to inspire children to chase their dreams, to be curious and hardworking,” Tatyana writes in the description of her campaign.
She is convinced that it is her generation that will set foot on Mars. “I think we're ready now in terms of technology and knowledge, enough experiments have been done. Yes, maybe it won't be soon, but I strongly hope and believe it will happen in my lifetime.” Tatyana believes in extraterrestrial life and wonders how we will communicate with other civilizations one day, when we make contact with them.
On the Wings of Desire
Just a few generations ago, most children said they wanted to become cosmonauts; today that is far from the case. And only the example of people like our guest could bring back interest in subjects like these, which matter to us even as a species.
“I think back then space was promoted, there were cosmonauts who visited schools. People talked about it much more, they even put climbing frames shaped like globes and rockets on playgrounds, which subconsciously steered people's thoughts. Toward the message that space is progress, that it's the only way forward and upward. For me this desire came much later, when I was 15, mature enough to judge how serious an undertaking this is. To sit alone with myself and think about whether this is what I want. Today I know it: this is exactly what I want.”
This is surely just the beginning of a great and glorious flight. And the more people value and support it, the higher it will go. Bon voyage to the stars!
