Nashville, TN - A local man, dressed in a custom heart costume, is going above and beyond this Valentine's Day to surprise his wife at work on the International Space Station (ISS).
Nashville native, Billy Andrews, met Cosmonaut Lidia Romanoff online just weeks before she was scheduled for a 13-month mission on the famed space station. They quickly fell in love and made plans for Romanoff to visit Nashville.
"The day that I sent her $3,000 for plane tickets was the day they moved her mission up," Andrews told reporters. "We were devastated."
The heart-broken couple didn't want to wait over a year to be married, but time was of the essence. Luckily, Romanoff found a minister in Moscow willing to marry them last-minute via Skype. Andrews wired $2,000 and the couple was married on Valentine's Day 2019.
Romanoff left the following morning and has not communicated since then due to tight ISS security protocols.
Now, on their first anniversary, Andrews has partnered with Nashville-based ZSpace to build a custom heart suit and travel the 254 miles to the orbiting space station. The surprise reunion is expected to happen at 11:21 a.m. this morning, the exact time they said "I do" and "я делаю" a year ago.
The Inquisitor reached out to the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) for comment but they said they have no record of a Cosmonaut Romanoff.
For more inspiring stories, follow us on Facebook.
Good Mental Health is No Joke
The Inquisitor Nashville aims to promote positive mental health through the
power of laughter. If you or someone you know is experiencing a mental health
emergency, please encourage them to call the Tennessee Statewide Crisis Line at
1-855-CRISIS-1 (1-855-274-7471).