The significance of Bulgaria joining the Artemis Accordsby Svetoslav Alexandrov
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| Bulgarian society is deeply divided and polarized and the differences in the historical narratives plays a huge part in the division. The greatest divide is about how we should treat Russia and its role in our history. |
In 2019 I wrote an article in which I told the history of Bulgarian efforts to conquer space (see “Bulgarians still dream about space four decades after their first crewed mission”, The Space Review, January 14, 2019.) I’m going to reiterate that Bulgarians, in general, are very proud of their past achievements. It is no wonder that in 2023 Georgi Gospodinov’s Time Shelter became the first book written in Bulgarian to win the International Booker prize: we are so overfocused about our history that we’re not only trying to preserve it, but also recreate it and make shrines so we can escape from the harsh reality of present times.
A good example of this is the reaction of many Bulgarians who began grieving when this month the Ukrainian high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh broke the women’s high jump world record which was held by our jumper Stefka Kostadinova for 37 years. But why? Why the sadness and anger? It’s not unlike another Bulgarian athlete can’t set another a new world record. But many people reacted like a holy relic was been desecrated. Our significant space achievements have also been sanctified in some way regardless if we’re talking about our only two cosmonauts Georgi Ivanov and Alexander Alexandrov, or the Bulgarian song “Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin,” which is part of the Voyager Golden Records.
Unfortunately, the Bulgarian society is deeply divided and polarized and the differences in the historical narratives plays a huge part in the division. The greatest divide is about how we should treat Russia and its role in our history. Now, a brief historical background is needed. Bulgaria was founded in 681 AD and during medieval times two great empires existed: The First Bulgarian Empire and the Second Bulgarian Empire. The second one ceased to exist by the early 15th century after being conquered by the Ottomans. Bulgarians remained under Ottoman rule for almost five centuries until the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–1878, which led to the re-establishment of the Bulgarian state.
The following decades were very turbulent with many wars, frequent coups, and changes of governments, but any hopes for democracy evaporated as soon as Bulgaria became USSR-aligned after 1948. The subsequent 45-year period of communism was deeply traumatic, with forced collectivization of land and creation of collective farms, lack of freedom of speech, and political repressions. It was also, however, a period of rapid industrialization as part of the goal of the Communist Party to transform agrarian and rural sites into shining socialist factories. Space exploration also played an important part of the ideology of the ruling class.
The revolutions of 1989, which led to the end of the communist rule in Eastern Europe, marked the transition to democracy and market economy. New political parties were formed and they represented the voices of the people. A large percent of the population was generally unhappy with the pro-Soviet orientation and believed that our future will be secured if we join the European Union (EU) and NATO, which eventually happened. For the goal of this manuscript I’ll refer these people as “pro-European” (I consider myself to be part of them). According to a survey conducted by Exacta Research Group in the period December 5–12, 2022, pro-Europeans are about 71% of the population. About 22% do not approve the EU and NATO. These people,which I’ll refer to as “pro-Russian,” believe that the Soviet rule was the best period of Bulgarian history. They’re nostalgic and strongly object the current geopolitical course of our country. Although pro-Russians are a minority, they’re very vocal in the social networks and gradually gain influence.
The following paragraphs will be dedicated to how space exploration and its history fits in the narrative of the both groups who use it for their goals.
Pro-Russians firmly support the narrative that the fall of communism meant the end of Bulgaria as a space country and NATO, EU, NASA, and the Western world in general do nothing to support us. In April 2023, the first Bulgarian cosmonaut, Georgi Ivanov, was invited to speak for Martin Karbovsky’s YouTube channel. He said, “During the period of socialism we were able to create. Now we no longer create anything.” Pro-Russians are quick to point out that we haven’t had any new cosmonauts since 1988 and, as a proof that Americans do nothing to modernize our aviation infrastructure, constantly remind us that the delivery of eight F-16 airplanes, for which the Bulgarian government paid $1.3 billion back in 2019 to replace the aging MiGs, is being continuously delayed.
| We, by ourselves, cannot have a space program and launch our own cosmonauts to orbit. We’re too small. Yet we have two cosmonauts. Why do we have two cosmonauts? Because someone else, the Soviets, did it for us. |
Certain radicals are prone to adopt popular pseudoscientific and misinformed beliefs. A lot of them are convinced that NASA never sent astronauts to the Moon and according to them it is obvious that the American space program lags behind Russia because it is unable to produce its own engines (they’re referring to the fact that the USA bought RD-180 and RD-181 engines for the first stages of American rockets, but those radicals go one step further and claim that the USA doesn’t have any rocket engines and even Elon Musk uses Russian engines for his Falcon rockets.) There’s no doubt that the American readers will be surprised of the extent of the propaganda in the former Eastern bloc countries.
Pro-Europeans frequently argue with pro-Russians on the social networks and do some efforts to correct misinformation because they’re less prone to belief in conspiracy theories. Some of them, however, including the popular pro-western journalist Ivo Indzhev, support the idea that Gagarin never flew to space: instead the Vostok spacecraft was launched empty, with animals aboard or there was another phantom cosmonaut who crash-landed or died. But this is more like an occasional knee-jerk reaction to the Apollo hoax theories (you dare deny Armstrong, then I’ll deny your Gagarin.) Conspiracy theories rarely get mentioned amongst the pro-Europeans; rather, they prefer to point out to the current accidents of the Russian space program, like rocket crashes and the recent ISS leaks.
As a space enthusiast, I was somewhat disturbed by the joy some people expressed when the Luna-25 mission crashed on the Moon last year, but we have to understand that pro-Europeans have rightfully been disgusted by the Russian attacks on Ukraine, especially on civilian infrastructure like hospitals. That’s why most pro-Europeans share the sentiment that it’s hard to support a Russian project, even if it’s a scientific or engineering one. Unfortunately, I have to say that some pro-Europeans are among the most vocal proponents of the idea that Bulgaria cannot afford to support fundamental research, that taxpayer funding of scientific institutions is socialism and backwards thinking.
If there’s one thing that pro-Europeans and pro-Russians will agree upon, it is the transition to market democracy turned out to be harder than many expected and disappointing to all of us. Bulgaria survived two periods of hyperinflation, a lot of sectors we left unreformed, and as today it remains the poorest country in the EU in terms of GDP distribution. Both groups, however, are aware that the USSR is gone, COMECON is gone too, and there’s no going back to the old times. Even pro-Russians admit that we won’t leave NATO and EU; they instead insist to have ties both with the USA and Russia. There’s no political party in our parliament that suggests abandoning capitalism and the revival of communism. But the two groups disagree on why the transition of marked economy led to unsatisfactory results.
Cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov isn’t alone in his thinking that we have destroyed everything good that was created during socialism. A lot of pro-Russians share this sentiment: we could have adopted marked economy eventually, but we didn’t have to destroy cooperative farms and we didn’t have to shut down industrial facilities and manufacturing plants. Pro-Europeans strongly disagree, and they provide arguments that those facilities were uncompetitive on the global market and would have to be closed down anyway. Instead, the reason for our poverty is a direct result of the lack of legal and judicial reform and the ineffectiveness of the judicial system is what repels foreign companies from investing in Bulgaria.
Pro-Europeans are also right in another critique: during the two periods of hyperinflation a common harmful narrative appeared. It’s that we, as a society, are flawed, we can’t fix us by ourselves so we have to be fixed. This was in a sense a salvation narrative which we’ve heard a lot before many elections. Who’ll fix us? Who’ll save us? And different answers were suggested: the EU, the USA, our king in exile. Many people worldwide are amazed that two decades ago the former king Simeon II, who was banished during communism, returned home and was elected as a prime minister.
| While the pro-Russians are lamenting that the Interkosmos program is gone, new companies have appeared in Bulgaria that are advancing space exploration. |
I talked a lot about Bulgarian politics in an article ostensibly about space exploration, and I’ll tell you the reason for it. This is the only way you can understand the logic of pro-Russian space enthusiasts. We, by ourselves, cannot have a space program and launch our own cosmonauts to orbit. We’re too small. Yet we have two cosmonauts. Why do we have two cosmonauts? Because someone else, the Soviets, did it for us. Why did they do it for us, not once, but twice—after all, of all Interkosmos countries, only Bulgaria had two space travelers? Because we were loyal. Why we no longer have cosmonauts? Because the USA won’t do it. Why won’t the USA do it? Because they understand nothing of loyalty and besides, they’re greedy and want money from us. It was not so during the socialism where brotherhood reigned and the Soviets did care about us.
They did care about us, but we’ve betrayed them by joining NATO and the EU. The narrative continues: Russians did so much for us. They liberated us from the Ottoman rule and ever since then, we’ve proved to be unfaithful. Of course, this narrative is flawed. Nobody did anything about us for free. In the beginning of the previous century we paid for our freedom to Russia with money equivalent to 32 tons of gold. The same is true about our first cosmonaut. The USSR didn’t send Georgi Ivanov to orbit for free. One of the pioneers of space sciences in Bulgaria, associate professor Doyno Petkov, admitted shortly before his death in 2020 that our country invested 20 millions of levs for the launch of Ivanov.
Meanwhile, while the pro-Russians are lamenting that the Interkosmos program is gone, new companies have appeared in Bulgaria that are advancing space exploration. Antarta, for example, has revived the production of Bulgarian space food (in 1979, Bulgaria became the third country in the world after the Soviet Union and the US to produce space food.) And of course, we have EnduroSat, a leading nanosat manufacturer that produced eight satellites in the end of 2023 and is currently pursuing an ambitious goal for 2024 of producing ten satellites monthly. This should be enough to invalidate the argument that our space industry has been in a better position during the communist era. As part of the Interkosmos program we only had two satellites: Interkosmos-Bulgaria-1300 and Meteor-Priroda-2-4, both launched in 1981.
One can make an argument that we can’t compare nanosats to multi-ton spacecraft, but nanosats have become quite capable in the recent years and previous efforts never led to serial production. EnduroSat alone makes a lot of us happy: the company is building solar panels for the second Intuitive Machines mission to the Moon, a 16U CubeSat called TOLIMAN to study Alpha Centauri as part of a partnership with the University of Sydney and Breakthrough Initiatives, and the Balkan constellation, the first Bulgarian satellite megaconstellation consisting of more than 120 nanosatellites.
But there’s one thing that hasn’t changed: we still don’t have another cosmonaut or astronaut and this is depressing for every space enthusiast, regardless of their geopolitical orientation. Of course, pro-Russians and pro-Europeans have different opinions about how we should send a third Bulgarian to orbit. While pro-Europeans point to private space, pro-Russians would prefer an Interkosmos-like program like the one that led to the launch of the Belarussian flight attendant Marina Vassilevskaya earlier this year aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft.
There’s no need to point out that this is just an impossible dream. Partnerships between Roscosmos and Europe ended as soon as the war in Ukraine began in February 2022 and there’s absolutely no way for an EU-allied country like Bulgaria to participate in a major project with Russia. So, let’s look about the realistic options to send a Bulgarian to space:
- Via an ESA partnership. Bulgaria became the tenth ESA cooperating state in 2016. In 2022, another cooperating state agreement was signed. Because of our status, we couldn’t participate in the last selection that took place in 2021–22. The rules of ESA state that “ESA astronauts can only be selected from countries that are ESA Member States and Associated Member States”. In April 2024 The Ministry of Innovation and Growth announced that a strategy has to be prepared until the end of this year which would make possible for Bulgaria to become an Associated Member of ESA. This would allow us to participate in future astronaut selections.
- Via space tourism. A private individual could fly to space if they fund their own trip, or alternatively, if their trip is funded by a non-profit organization, for example Space for Humanity.
- Via a national space program that is strongly backed by Bulgaria’s government. Space enthusiasts can look to Türkiye as an example. Back in 2021 the Turkish government announced a ten-year plan for their space program which included development of space technologies, satellites, a spaceport, a Moon lander, and sending a Turkish citizen to space. The last achievement happened this year: in January astronaut Alper Gezeravci launched aboard a Crew Dragon as part of the Axiom Mission 3, and then in June his backup, Tuva Atasever, flew aboard Virgin Galactic’s Unity spacecraft.
This is exactly why signing the Artemis Accords in November 2023 was so important for Bulgaria. First, it signaled that Bulgaria is becoming committed to US-led space activities and desires to be part of them. Second, it truly signifies the end of the old ways of thinking and embraces the new approaches in space exploration which include business and entrepreneurship.
| Our next steps to the stars have finally been taken. Now it’s up to us to carve a path ahead. |
This aspiration was further reiterated in April, when The Ministry of Innovations and Growth signed a letter of intent for cooperation with Axiom Space. While it doesn’t mention a commitment to send an astronaut to space, it is said to lay “the first steps for a long-term and sustainable partnership to promote and develop the national space ecosystem”.
On June 25th the fourth edition of “Hello Space? Bulgaria Calling!” festival, which is organized by the Atlantic Club under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and Science, was held in Sofia Tech Park. I was among the 15 lectors invited to speak in front hundreds of students, and the festival was also attended by an active astronaut of Axiom Space: Michael López-Alegría, who commanded the Axiom Mission 3 that sent the first Turkish citizen to space. López-Alegría gave an intriguing and inspiring presentation about his flight and also answered many questions asked by the students.
Our next steps to the stars have finally been taken. Now it’s up to us to carve a path ahead. During that festival, Galin Tsokov, who is the current Minister of Education and Science, said to the students: “You could become the next world-famous explorers, the next astronauts.”
We must not let them down.
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