As a child in Odessa, Ukraine, Lina Borozdina’s dad would tell her bedtime stories about her cousin and her sneaking onto a spaceship as stowaways to go on space adventures. By age 6, she already knew all the constellations and their associated mythology. “It was all about space for me,” she says. “I didn’t get Cinderella stories.” Flying aboard ‘Galactic 06’ is a dream come true for Lina, and she knows her father, Yuri Borozdin, who still lives in Odessa, is deeply proud of her achievements. A scientist, chemist and breast cancer survivor, Lina was thrilled to see “our fragile blue planet in the infinite vacuum of space. You can’t see wars or suffering from above. Just the beauty of our planet.” Her spacesuit displays the Ukraine and USA flags and breast cancer ribbon. Onboard, she carried personal photos, a small childhood possession and items from her close friends.
Virgin Galactic is an American spaceflight company within the Virgin Group. It is developing commercial spacecraft and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. Virgin Galactic's suborbital spacecraft are air launched from beneath a carrier airplane known as White Knight Two.