Earth Day: Seeing Our Home Through an Astronaut’s Lens
April 20, 2018 • By Libby, David
Our first of three Earth Day posts is contributed by guest author David Libby from TERC, which operates Windows on Earth. All images are courtesy of NASANational Aeronautics and Space Administration.
“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.”
– Astronaut Sultan bin Salman Al-Saud
Orbiting the Earth once every 92 minutes at an altitude of 250 miles, the crew members onboard the International Space Station have a unique perspective of our home planet. They no longer see borders, but they do see the signs of humans on Earth.
They see Earth’s majesty,
variety,
grandeur,
fragility,
and subtlety.
They see signs of humanity on the land . . .
. . . and in the ocean.
This Earth Day,
Let us remember the words of the first human to fly in space and treasure the gift we have been given.
“When I orbited the Earth in a spaceship, I saw for the first time how beautiful our planet is. Mankind, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it!”