From Dream to Mission: The Space Adventure of Maxim and Veneta Behar

Interview on 7/8 TV in the program “The Slavi Trifonov Show”

Space has always been a symbol of dreams, courage, and limitless possibilities. For many, it remains a distant, almost unattainable reality reserved for a select few. But sometimes, people emerge who prove that boundaries exist only in our minds. Maxim and Veneta Behar are exactly such individuals’ visionaries who step beyond the familiar and turn the impossible into lived experience. After successfully completing one of the world’s most elite astronaut training programs, they returned not only with impressive knowledge and skills, but also with a mission to inspire. Their story is not just about space, but about the courage to take the first step, the power of teamwork, and what it truly means to step outside one’s comfort zone.

Host: Dear viewers, my guests tonight are the first Bulgarians to graduate with distinction from an astronaut training program at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center of NASA in Huntsville, Alabama. They were selected from only sixteen people from around the world for this extremely demanding and fascinating program. We’ll learn more directly from them. Let me introduce Maxim and Veneta Behar. Good evening.

Maxim and Veneta: Good evening.

Host: I’m shocked that only sixteen people worldwide were admitted to this program and two of them are you.

Maxim: Not forever just for one year. We were fifteen of us, because one person didn’t show up. So, there were fifteen of us: the two of us, two foreigners, and 13 Americans.

Host: And why are you dressed like that?

Maxim: Because these were our outfits during the training in Huntsville. We lived in them for ten days. We also had others big space suits like the ones you’ve seen in movies, which we used for the Mars simulations.

Host: Our team, our television, and our viewers know you in quite a different light. Why did you even decide to take on such an adventure? Whose idea was it? How did you contact them?

Maxim: It came to both of us. I had a birthday in December, gathered our kids for lunch, and told them I wanted an unusual gift. Not 120 bottles of wine, not paintings, not a cigar cutter or a whiskey set. When my daughter Ralitsa suggested a round-the-world experience, Veneta reminded me of the “Hello Space” program we run with the Atlantic Club and Solomon Passy where once a year we connect children with a real astronaut. And then the idea came: why not sponsor someone to attend such training? And I said, “why not me? Veneta and I are used to stepping out of our comfort zone. We’ve worked 12–14 hours a day for years. I’ve been in business for 32 years. When you step outside your comfort zone, you discover new and exciting things.

Host: Let’s hear from Veneta, because they say the man is the head of the family, but the woman is the neck that turns the head. What exactly does this program involve?

Veneta: I don’t know if that’s entirely true, but we function in perfect sync. Usually, one of us produces an idea, and the other picks it up and we make it happen together. Let’s leave the “head and neck” discussion aside. The program in Huntsville is very intense a full ten-day schedule from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., packed with activities.

Host: Do they give you these suits immediately upon arrival?

Veneta: Yes, right away. You check in, drop your luggage, and within half an hour you start. Every 30 minutes there’s something new building rockets, simulations, debates, competitions on whose rocket flies farther.

Host: Do they subject you to physical strain like actual astronauts?

Veneta: Yes. The toughest part was underwater building structures or even playing basketball to simulate weightlessness. The closest feeling to zero gravity is at about 7–8 meters underwater.

Host: I suppose that tests how your senses react and how you move in such an environment.

Veneta: It’s more about coordination and teamwork like building something together underwater.

Maxim: For us, it was important to understand what real astronauts do. They told us we would go through the same program as actual astronauts except they continue for three more years. We only experienced ten days. And our astronaut Georgi Ivanov told me: “You saw exactly what I saw in space only you did it on Earth.”

Host: Were there any confidentiality rules things you weren’t allowed to share?

Maxim: No. They initially said no phones or tablets, but when I explained we run businesses and want to author a book, they allowed it. Still, we couldn’t film constantly we had tasks and had to stay focused. In a spacecraft, everyone has a role. If someone fails, the mission fails.

Host: So, it’s all about teamwork.

Maxim: Exactly. But we took plenty of photos, and they had official photographers too. The program runs once a year with 15–16 participants. Their goal is for you to enjoy it. They told us: “Have fun.” But we completed everything.

Host: Based on who you are as public figures, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say accept it, it’s not a compliment, just a fact that you are visionaries by nature in what you do professionally. Regarding space, how do you view the fact that more and more confidently not just by us, but by space science on planet Earth it’s being said that humanity will indeed carry out such a mission, that we will reach there, step on that red planet, just as we did on the Moon? After everything you went through, are these claims credible that soon humans will head toward Mars? Because there are many debates. Some say such a mission is impossible.

Maxim: Veni.

Veneta: It’s already happening. It’s already underway. When you’re there, something just clicks you feel like, yes, now you’re going to snap your fingers and go.

Host: Did they simulate real situations like that? For example, journeys to the Moon or Mars?

Maxim: Not just that that’s what we did every day. We spent entire days on Mars, at the station. We launched with the station; everyone had their own role. And it’s real, because…

Host: That sounds like something out of a Hollywood movie.

Maxim: No, no. We see it on the screen we see the station lifting off, with the booster’s underneath, like we’ve seen on TV or in films. We launch; we land on Mars. We were in different suits, much heavier ones. Then we go outside the station, it’s quite a distance we must crawl in all that gear. I had an action camera on I haven’t watched it yet, but I recorded all four hours we spent on Mars. Then we went back inside. Everyone had their role. Veneta and I were responsible for communications with Earth. Others handled oxygen and electricity. After installing the station, we even planted lettuce, for example.

Host: Let me ask a deliberately provocative question. I’m sure some of our more conspiracy-minded viewers are secretly wondering: could it be that Maxim and Veneta are part of a secret project? That what we’re seeing on TV is just a soft presentation, while the world is preparing certain groups of people like in Hollywood plots to leave our dying planet and go to Mars? Is it possible that, without knowing, you’re part of such conspiracy groups of sixteen people per year being prepared for something like this?

Maxim: No, because we applied ourselves. When I submitted our application that Sunday at noon, I got a reply saying we were on the waiting list because it was full. Then I sent an essay explaining who we are, what we want to do, we wanted to author a book, bring the idea to Bulgaria, tell the story. Later, when we met their marketing director, he said: “I’m the one who responded to you. I checked who you are and thought you’re valuable people.” The real idea became clear after we returned to show people that if Max and Veni can do this, so can they. Because when you talk about it here in Sofia Mars missions, training, building rockets, testing materials, discussions on space law it sounds impossible. But it’s not.

Host: It sounds distant from real life, yet it’s completely possible.

Maxim: We did it, anyone can do it. And they should experience incredible things. For example, we lived in tiny windowless rooms, on two levels, sharing space. When I told friends in Sofia, they said: “The showers alone would make me quit.”

Host: That’s a bit much.

Maxim: That’s the least of it! In space, astronauts live in extremely limited space. Four people, tiny quarters you wonder how they shower, live, exercise. In Huntsville, where the largest space museum is located, Veneta and I visited during breaks or evenings. We had 24-hour access. There we saw in real time what astronauts are doing training, shaving, cycling, and conducting experiments. I did chemical experiments for 3–4 hours a day; Veneta handled communications. It’s incredibly inspiring. One evening, a professor told us: “These will be the most interesting days of your life.” She was right.

Host: Let me open a side note we are one of the few countries, the only one now, that is not part of the European space program. Which is ironic, considering our history as a space nation. Did you try “space food”?

Veneta: We produce such food in Bulgaria.

Maxim: We have plenty at home. Our friends Stefan and Maxim Ivanov who rowed across the Atlantic and Indian Oceans brought us space food. So yes, we’ve tried it.

Host: What is it like?

Veneta: It’s freeze-dried food.

Maxim: It tastes like normal food simply different texture, like edamame.

Host: What kind of people did you meet?

Veneta: Yes, it really was an adventure. We were lucky to end up in a phenomenal group with remarkably interesting people. There were aeronautical engineers, doctors in biology and genetics. There was a girl who was graduating in Space Operations meaning this is already a university major. She studies how such missions and operations are organized. We also had doctors, young doctors, who were thinking about the future and how they could integrate this profession into university education. But going back to the earlier question, I want to say that this type of training gave me, at least, the clarity that anyone can become an astronaut and any person can become an astronaut. You just must want it, apply, and get into some kind of training program, because they do this constantly. We simply went through these ten days, which all astronauts except professional American pilots go through, and it’s very achievable. You just need to push yourself and apply. Anyone can be accepted.

Host: Would it be too grand of an assumption, before we continue the conversation, if I suggest that the two of you are fully ready and willing to do what is still rare to become space tourists? There have already been several cases of people who are not astronauts visiting outer space, of course by paying massive amounts of money. I should say it’s an extremely expensive endeavor.

Maxim: That’s exactly what I was going to say is extremely expensive and would require at least a year of preparation, which at this stage we can’t afford, because we’re involved in business, collaborating with many people, clients, and projects. But let me tell you what qualities an astronaut should have. At Hello Space, every year there are astronauts, and last year a real astronaut from America came to Allegra, which was his last name who had been through our course. This year there will be one again. Twenty-one real astronauts have completed our course, and that’s when they got inspired. That astronaut was here. Last night we were visiting Moni and Geri Pasi, close friends of ours, and Gergana told us a story. She asked that astronaut what qualities an astronaut should have. He looked and said: “They need to be able to tell stories well.”

Host: A very unusual answer, right?

Maxim: Yes, because in the end you’ve been up there, you’ve seen it, you’ve experienced it. You must pass it on. You must motivate others, to tell them what it’s like so they can say: “Aha, I can do that too.” And then I realized that’s it. We need to tell our friends in Bulgaria, all people who hasn’t dreamed of being an astronaut as a child. Especially boys, all of them. Godzhi, you dreamed of being an astronaut as a child, right?

Godzhi: I have such a memory.

Maxim: You’re still young, so you should mention it. Everyone has dreamed of being an astronaut. And then at some point you see wait a second, one or two Bulgarians applied, passed the checks, went there, saw it it’s possible. And we’re trying to tell it Well.

Veneta: And we’ll tell it on June 26 at Hello Space to all the children around a thousand across Bulgaria. The festival is gaining momentum. This year it’s even two days. There are many children from all over Bulgaria interested in this type of event. We’ll tell it on both the 26th and 27th at Hello Space.

Host: We mentioned Moni and Geri Pasi several times. I’m sure and I want to repeat that since I used the word “visionaries” for you, they are truly real visionaries in a scientific and technical sense. Thanks to them, we now have these so-called universal chargers, the connector that fits all phones.

Maxim: They were a great support to us, although when I first shared our idea with them two or three months ago, Gergana told me: “Max, you’re the one who raps with Misho Shamara we accepted that. But this space thing is a bit too much. Are you sure you want it?” I told her: “Don’t even say that we’re going to do it.” And they’ve been a big support ever since.

Veneta: Yes, absolutely. Usually when you say “space,” people immediately imagine some kind of intense physical training something superhuman. But the whole training is completely achievable.

Host: You don’t have to be Superman physically to do it.

Veneta: No if we managed to do it.

Maxim: During those ten days, I didn’t think about anything else except how to complete my mission. Nothing else mattered. How to complete it so that in the end they would call us on stage and say we were an outstanding team. We received special awards for best team and NASA certificates. That was my goal. You go there, and nothing else matters. I remembered everyone’s names in the group. For half of them, I didn’t even understand who they were, only the guys I shared a cabin with. When you focus, when you have the energy to achieve something, when you’re consistent that applies to everything. It applies to your show as well.

Host: I hope our viewers listen carefully to your wise words because when a person puts in the necessary effort toward a goal, it is completely achievable. Even space is achievable.

Maxim: Of course. You show it in your program. I watched your show twenty years ago regardless of the TV channel you’re the same professionals. You host it the same way, play music the same way, the ballet is the same. Once a professional, always a professional.

I gave an example earlier Elton John was here ten years ago. He performed at Lokomotiv Stadium, which was half-ruined. The stands were in terrible condition. But Elton John didn’t perform worse. He came out at eight and performed at full level. You can’t tell him: “This is Lokomotiv Stadium, sing worse.”

Host: I understand whether you’re at Wembley or Lokomotiv Stadium, if you’re a professional, you deliver.

Maxim: Exactly. Same with your show. Respect. And the same applies to life if you want to achieve something, you must be professional and consistent. You can reach space if you really want it. We are proof of that.

Veneta: One thing you realize during the training is that everyone has a key role. If you don’t do your part properly, others depend on you, and the mission can fail. That’s vital.

Maxim: We flew an F-16 simulator. We saw the entire American air fleet since the Vietnam War. I’ve been on an F-16 before at Graf Ignatievo, but the simulator was something else and not easy.

Veneta: It was the hardest exercise.

Host: Does the simulator closely resemble real flight?

Veneta: Oh yes you enter the cockpit like in a real plane.

Maxim: And we didn’t have much time for training. We had about 15–20 minutes in which they instructed us, and it was some kind of screen, some PowerPoint presentations. After that, when we entered the cabin, everyone had their own separate cabin. You take off. You must pass overpopulated areas, not crash into them. You drop bombs. You must drop them over specific targets.

Host: In fact, a real mission is being simulated.

Veneta: For me, that was the most difficult exercise out of all ten days.

Host: Please allow me one slightly more philosophical question. It is related to space. Why do the USA, Russia, China in space not only cooperate, not only work as a team the International Space Station is proof of that but up there it’s as if all these inter-political conflicts that are earthly and some of them very intense, as you know, don’t exist? The world right now is in great trouble, unfortunately, because of the conflict in Iran. And up there is peace, there is friendship, there is love, there is understanding. What could be the explanation?

Maxim: Right now, there are two Russian cosmonauts on the station. The explanation is that this is science. This is science. How can you have different opinions, how can you have contradictions? This is a question of science.

Host: Can science be useful to the civilization that is currently on this planet, so that it stops doing the foolish things it is doing on an exceptionally large scale?

Veneta: All the time, since we had a lot of contact with people either currently working at NASA or former NASA engineers who worked on previous missions the leitmotif all the time was that these space missions are human missions. Because one nation, one state, can hardly afford at this stage, in terms of funds and resources, to make such progress as everyone could if they combine their efforts. And they do it. That was one of the leitmotifs throughout all the presentations and training sessions it kept coming up.

Maxim: By the way, this was one of the most interesting parts of our training. Every morning, we had breakfast with people they call “docents.” Their terminology is specific. All of them were aged 85+ and were former NASA employees’ engineers, software specialists, people from the technological “kitchen” who worked on missions like Space Shuttle Challenger disaster. While we were enjoying simple breakfasts bread, butter, jam they told us unique stories about how they worked with Russians, Chinese, and others, and they always introduced political elements. They also mentioned John F. Kennedy and the first space flights, discussed relations with Nikita Khrushchev. The Soviet Union launched a human, and immediately the panic at NASA was great and everyone was trying to reach the Moon. You are right in space, because everything is science, people live together, and we too can and must live together. Unfortunately, on Earth it is not always like that.

Host: I watched a film dedicated to NASA where an aerospace engineer noted that Neil Armstrong said, “a small step for man, a giant leap for mankind,” not for Americans. That is a strong message regardless of nationality, he represents the entire Homo sapiens species.

Maxim: In the film and in our exercises, we tried to imitate the Moon landing, dealing with weightlessness and powerful springs we struggled with them to stay on the ground. That was one of the most exciting experiences.

Host: We managed to meet at our team’s office and briefly discuss the media. Television has a time limit, but outside the mission related to NASA we can talk about communication. Communication is key as we will see in future missions to Mars or the Moon when nations like Japan or Bulgaria may have conflicts over resources. I told you then that we would also open the topic of media and communication a bit. There was no time. Television has this huge drawback of being limited in time. You are welcome in the future, outside this specific NASA-related mission we talked about tonight, to discuss this topic as well. But since you mentioned Kennedy, there are short answers please. Is it possible that what is happening up in space when Kennedy said that famous line “Ich bin ein Berliner” but said in a way in German that sounds like “I am a doughnut”?

Maxim: Yes. But it had an extremely significant impact on the entire world, that phrase. Because actually it shows…

Host: Is it possible that communication can confuse things for us?

Maxim: You know, the moment missions to Mars or the Moon start but ones where Israelis send someone, Japanese send someone then conflicts may arise. We had half a day of debates on space law. But there were no lectures, we were in separate teams and discussed different topics. And the whole idea was: whose is this territory when you land on Mars? Whose is it actually? How is it American? It may not be American. People from NASA said it is American because in the 17th–18th century, when settlers from Europe settled in America, they built their houses in Arizona, Texas wherever and said, “this land is mine, which is yours,” and that’s how it stayed. But now it is the 21st century we have communications, we have transparency. Back then no one might have known you took two acres of land and built a house. Now everyone knows. And maybe when more nations step on the Moon or Mars more likely Mars, I think conflicts may arise. Because there are a lot of resources there. And they may say, wait a second how so? The Japanese, for example. The Bulgarians. Bulgarians sent a rocket wait, how is this yours? But communication is one of the reasons why there is such chaos in the world right now. The other reason is, of course, the tremendous greed for power, money, influence of something we haven’t seen before. In the early nineties communism fell. And I thought communism was falling so we would enter the European Union in a year. That’s what we all thought. And the euro would come three months later. And we would all become rich and happy. And rich because we would work, because there is competition, confidential business, and everything else. Things, at least in Bulgaria, diverged a bit from our dreams and expectations. But I still think hopefully reason will prevail. Hopefully, people will think and say: war brings us nothing. Okay, we will lower oil prices. Okay, we will seize some territories. But we will kill people. And we will ruin the whole way the planet works. How can people fight people? How can they shoot, kill each other? Communication in a sense also helps us see all these evils. Because when the Chernobyl disaster happened in 1986, we all know when we learned about it, how we learned it and that in the end nothing was clear. If, God forbid, something similar happens now a war or conflict like the current one we will know in the second. We will be able to react. We will be able to have our opinion. Whether on television or social media. You know in social media there are experts on everything.

Host: Bigger than the real experts themselves.

Veneta: Now I think, to bring the topic back to space, I keep thinking that space is such a place that a person cannot function alone. That is, at this stage at least, you cannot be alone there. You need a team, you need people, you need humanity. And you are like a representative of humanity in this universe, in this space. So, I think space can be the thing that will bring us closer and make it so that there is humanity, not separate people craving power.

Host: Thank you very much for this conversation. You have touched space, and the way you think even though your way was already wise, calm, analytical before hopefully John Lennon was right with that song Imagine. And like that Russian rock group that sang they still long for the Earth that is in space to love our planet, to take care of one another, to look after each other and be brave, like you, even in endeavors that seem impossible and beyond human power.

Maxim: Filipe, thank you very much to you and your colleagues, the guys from the band, of course. I noticed that when Veneta and I watch your show in the evening because your show is at the time we come home from work and can watch something the guests don’t bring any gifts. That’s true. Is this a crisis? Global stinginess has hit us.

Host: So, I understand you have a gift.

Maxim: Yes, of course. In the past you couldn’t even think of entering The Slavi Show without a gift. We brought you the following gift. This is our photo with the Bulgarian flag. We carried the Bulgarian flag with us. We have a photo with the Bulgarian flag at the rocket center, and we wrote to you because in Bulgaria there is a big debate: who is the highest? Whether Pirin, Vitosha, whether Boyko Borisov is the highest, or whether Slavi. I wrote to Slavi and the team: Space is of us, no one else…

Host: I accept this gift with pleasure. I greet Slavi especially.Thank you very much for this visit. Dear viewers, space is of us, and our guests are above everything petty and human in our experiences. It was a pleasure for me to talk with Maxim and Veneta Behar.

You can watch the whole interview here: https://www.maximbehar.com/bg/video/434/ot-mechta-do-misiya-kosmicheskoto-priklyuchenie-na-maksim-i-veneta-behar