site.btaRSV 421 Prepares to Leave Livingston Island

Cargo handling operations were carried out Monday between the Bulgarian Antarctic Base and the Bulgarian naval research vessel Sv. Sv. Kiril i Metodiy (NIC 421). The ship is preparing to depart on Tuesday, and yesterday during the day luggage was transported from the base to the vessel. Some of the scientists and logistics personnel who will be traveling on board also embarked on Monday, while the rest will board on Tuesday morning before departure.

NIC 421 is scheduled to set sail on Tuesday, beginning the long journey home. Along the way, it will stop in Comodoro Rivadavia, Argentina, for a meeting with the Bulgarian community.

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. BTA Director General Kiril Valchev said they exist thanks to the generous support of RSV 421 and Bulgaria’s St Kliment Ohridski Base, which provide the necessary facilities. These two press clubs 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).

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.