Space2Sea Antarctica marks the inaugural voyage in a series produced by FUTURE of SPACE (FoS). This innovative journey blends Earth's uncharted territories with the inspiring narrative of human curiosity and exploration. It encapsulates the core mission of FoS to: Embrace New Frontiers, Celebrate the Human Experience, and Elevate the Conversation. Student journalist Gabe Castro-Root of American University is chronicling the mission for FoS. You can read his latest dispatch below.
By the beginning of 2025, Valeriia Subotina and Mariia Chekh will be back at war. The two Ukrainian soldiers have spent much of the past three years on the battlefield defending their country from Russia's invasion — including a year in Russian captivity before they were freed in prisoner exchanges.
But Subotina and Chekh spent the second half of December in a starkly different environment: on a cruise ship in Antarctica, photographing penguins and glaciers and socializing with celebrities like "Star Trek" actor William Shatner and astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
Visiting Antarctica — and, in particular, Ukraine's Vernadsky Research Base on the continent's peninsula — was a lifelong dream of both women. During the 2022 siege of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Subotina sent an email from the front line to researchers at the base, saying that she hoped to visit them if she survived the war.
"When we plan something for the long term, it means that we are not going to give up," Subotina said in an interview aboard the ship last week as it sailed along Antarctica's northern edge. She spoke in Ukrainian, with Chekh translating to English.
Chekh, who has a degree in biology, had planned to spend a year working at Vernadsky around 2016. But then she joined the army and, she said, "I forgot about my dream completely."
Vernadsky is one of the world's most isolated research centers. It's also a critically important provider of global climate data, having conducted daily readings of atmospheric ozone and other environmental indicators dating back to the 1940s.
Operations at the base have been repeatedly impacted by the war, despite its location some 9,500 miles from the front lines. Vernadsky's outside communications were temporarily cut off in 2022 after a Russian missile struck the National Antarctic Scientific Center in Kyiv. And more than two dozen polar researchers have joined Ukraine's armed forces since the war began. Fourteen scientists are still stationed at the base.
Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, a featured guest on the Antarctica expedition alongside Shatner, Tyson and others, first raised the idea of sponsoring Ukrainian veterans when he was brought on by expedition organizer Space2Sea. Kelly has worked closely with United24, a Ukrainian governmental organization raising support for the country abroad, and traveled to Ukraine to advocate for its defense against Russia.
"If we lose democracy anywhere, it's a threat on democracy everywhere, especially in Europe," said Kelly, who took Russian language lessons for two decades with a Ukrainian teacher. Kelly traveled to space on Russian rockets and worked with Russian cosmonauts on the International Space Station.
Subotina and Chekh had divergent reactions to stepping outside the war and into one of the planet's most tranquil, untouched environments.
"I feel at home," Chekh said. "I enjoy ice and the ocean and all these orcas. Every day is something new."
Subotina said it was a dream come true to see the beauty of Antarctica, but that it was harder for her to take her mind off the war back home.
"I miss my brothers and sisters in arms," she said. "A lot of Ukraine is in danger, and I can't be calm."
And while the 10-day trip to Antarctica was full of dramatic glacier views and close encounters with diverse wildlife, a planned visit to Vernadsky had to be scrapped at the last minute due to bad weather. Subotina and Chekh, disappointed not to make it to the base, briefly considered trying to catch a ride there on another ship once the cruise returned to its port in Argentina.
"I would swim — I was absolutely ready to continue," Chekh said. But obligations at home called, and they decided to plan to return in the future, perhaps after the war.
On the day of the planned visit to Vernadsky, the ship screened the Academy Award-winning PBS documentary "20 Days in Mariupol," which chronicles the beginning of Russia's invasion. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with Subotina and Chekh, moderated by Kelly.
Chekh explained that, after returning from Antarctica, Subotina would return to the battlefield while she would stay in Kyiv with the hopes of starting a family. Her husband, also a soldier, would soon return from the front lines.
And Chekh plans to make her own film showing what she experienced in battle and in captivity, hoping to raise greater global awareness of Ukraine's plight.
"The trip showed me that I am ready to come back to civil life and enjoy the simple things that made me happy before the war: art, science and nature," Chekh said. "That is what we are fighting for. The democracy in Ukraine where everyone will be able to choose the life they want to live."
This article was provided by Space2Sea Antarctica and FUTURE of SPACE. For more information on the expedition and FoS visit the Space2Sea Antarctica expedition site, and the FUTURE of SPACE initiative.
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