ANNEX
Astronaut's
Reflections
Our Home:
Planet Earth as seen from
Outer Space
Reflections of astronauts who had
the privilege to look down on
Earth from heaven. See
also Idea 4258.
My view of our planet was a
glimpse of divinity. Edgar
Mitchell, USA. Now I know why I'm
here, not for a closer look at the
Moon, but to look back at our home
The Earth. Alfred Worden, USA. The
Earth reminded us of a Christmas
tree ornament hanging in the
blackness of space. As we got
farther and farther away it
diminished in size. Finally it
shrank to the size of a marble,
the most beautiful marble you can
imagine. That beautiful, warm,
living object looked so fragile,
so delicate, that if you touched
it with a finger it would crumble
and fall apart.
Seeing this has to change a
person, has to make them
appreciate the creation of God and
the love of God. James Irwin, USA.
When you look out the other way
toward the stars you realize it's
an awful long way to the next
watering hole. Loren Acton, USA.
If everyone could see the Earth
from the moon, as we saw it, all
the problems before the UN would
be solved. Alan Shepard, USA.
The artistic genius who painted
our planet worked from a fantastic
assortment of His palette and with
unusually pure colors. We flew
across the Crimea. It was autumn
and corn was ripening in the Cuban
area, the delicate yellows of the
grain iridescent in a hundred
shades. Fifteen minutes later we
saw the soft green of the forest
in the Taiga, then the dark brown
of the Himalayas, and once again
the long stretch across the lovely
sapphire ocean. Anyone who has
been in space knows that the
impatiently awaited unearthliness
quickly loses its charm. It is not
the boring uniform blackness of
the cosmic abyss that engages your
attention, but the spectacle of
our small planet haloed in blue.
Suddenly, you get a feeling you
never had before, that you are an
inhabitant of Earth. Those who
have been in space realized that,
in spite of the complete disparity
between them, they are one in an
important way, namely, an acute
feeling of being an inhabitant of
Earth, a feeling of a personal
responsibility to preserve the
only planet we have. They realize
that any predicament,
disagreement, or obstacle can be
overcome. Oleg Makarov, USSR.
The Earth was small, light blue,
and so touchingly alone, our home
must be defended like a holy
relic. Aleksei Leonov, USSR. The
Earth at night looks even more
magical than it does during the
day. There is always a storm
happening somewhere. Flashes of
lightening sometimes cover up to a
fourth of a continent. At first
you see this as a natural
disturbance, the eruption of
splashes as a majestic spectacle.
...All of a sudden, against your
will, you imagine that the
lightening comes not from a
natural storm, but from the
explosions of bombs. No. This must
never occur. Let only the northern
lights and lightening blaze above
our precious Earth. Valdimir
Shatalov, USSR.
During a space flight the psyche
of each astronaut is reshaped.
Having seen the sun, the stars,
and our planet, you become more
full of life, softer. You begin to
look at all living things with the
people around you. At any rate
that is what happened to me. Boris
Volynov, USSR.
For the first time in my life I
saw the horizon as a curved line.
It was accentuated by a thin seam
of dark blue light — our
atmosphere. Obviously this was not
the ocean of air I had been told
it was so many times in my life. I
was terrified by its fragile
appearance. Ulf Merbold Federal
Republic of Germany.
Before I flew I was already aware
of how small and vulnerable our
planet is; but only when I saw it
from space, in all its ineffable
beauty and fragility, did I
realize that humankind's most
urgent task is to cherish and
preserve it for future
generations. Sigmund Jahn German
Democratic Republic.
The first day or so we all pointed
to our countries. The third or
fourth day we were pointing to our
continents. By the fifth day we
were aware of only one Earth.
Sultan Bin Salman al-Saud Saudi
Arabia.
From space I saw the Earth —
indescribably beautiful with the
scars of national boundaries gone.
Muhammad Ahmand Faris, Syria.
I have been in love with the sky
since birth. And when I could fly,
I wanted to go higher, to enter
space and become a 'man of the
heights'. During the eight days I
spent in space, I realized that
humankind needs height primarily
to better know our long-suffering
Earth, to see what cannot be seen
close up. Not just to love her
beauty, but also to ensure that we
do not bring even the slightest
harm to the natural world. Pham
Tuan, Vietnam.
The tears come to my eyes each
time I read these moving
statements. They should be known
and inspire every school, every
government, all institutions, all
media, all corporations of the
Earth.
All heads of states and of major
institutions and corporations
should fly to outer space and look
down to Earth. The whole future of
the world would depend on it.
~ Robert Muller
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