site.btaRSV 421 Plans Voyage to Antarctic Peninsula

The research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) is scheduled to make a scientific voyage to the Antarctic Peninsula on Friday afternoon.

The ship will also carry out cargo operations, including the delivery of fuel and lubricants to the base and the loading of waste from it.

At the end of the day, RSV 421 will depart for Hope Bay, heading to the Argentine polar base Esperanza, where it will disembark. On the following day, February 7, a project led by oceanographer Emil Stanev to measure Antarctic currents is expected to be carried out. On February 8, the ship is scheduled to return to the Bulgarian base.

Meanwhile, at the Bulgarian Antarctic base St. Kliment Ohridski, various projects are planned, including a visit to the seismic station at Sally Rocks, which was built last year jointly by Bulgarian seismologist Gergana Georgieva and researcher Badr Al Ameri from the United Arab Emirates.

The bathymetric project led by geophysicist Kiril Velkovski will continue in suitable weather conditions, along with construction work in the two new laboratories.

The Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodii (RSV 421) departed for Antarctica from Varna (on the Black Sea) on November 7, 2025. After a month-long voyage across the Atlantic Ocean, the ship arrived at the Argentine naval base in Mar del Plata on December 13.

BTA has had a national press club on board the ship since 2022 and another on Livingston Island since February 2024. These are added to the news agency’s other 41 national press clubs (33 in Bulgaria, seven abroad in neighbouring countries and in nations with large Bulgarian communities, and one mobile National Book Press Club). BTA's Director General Kiril Valchev announced ahead of the fourth voyage to Antarctica on November 7, 2025 that the national news agency would send a special correspondent in January-February 2026.

He said the press clubs exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. 

The news items of BTA's special correspondents on RSV 421 and Antarctica are freely available in Bulgarian and English on the agency's website. They can be used free of charge by all media, with attribution to BTA. Valchev recalled that thanks to its correspondents, the news agency appears among the top results on Google when searching for the phrase “Antarctica correspondent”.