A Space Station Commander Says Seeing Earth From Orbit "Changes You"

The astronauts of SpaceX's Crew-12 mission wish everyone could see Earth the way they just did. According to Space.com, a view from orbit shows the beauty of our blue planet, the only known world that has life, and also how fragile that life is. Crew-12 commander Jessica Meir of NASA said that you see a very thin band of atmosphere, and you know that it is all that is supporting life, so we must do our best to protect it. She spoke at a press conference on Thursday, October 15, about the mission that had just ended.

Meir said she wishes she could bring the eyes of all humans to look back at Earth this way. She said it changes how you see each other, yourself and the human race, and gives everyone an understanding that the planet is both beautiful and precious. From the International Space Station, she said, it is clear that everything on Earth is connected, and the borders between states and nations are human inventions. She said you realize that we really are one humanity.

Crew-12 mission specialist Andrey Fedyaev, from the Russian space agency Roscosmos, shared similar feelings but pointed to the crew. He said life aboard the station is the best example of how people should live on Earth. There are no borders, he said, and everyone is friendly, because the safety of the station depends on the actions of the whole crew. If humankind came to the same idea, that Earth is one spaceship flying through space, he said, people would need to take care of it and not destroy it.

Many astronauts feel this way. The feeling is called the overview effect, a term created in 1987 by the space philosopher Frank White.

Crew-12 had four members: Meir, Fedyaev, NASA astronaut Jack Hathaway, who was the pilot, and Sophie Adenot of the European Space Agency. Meir and Fedyaev had been to space once before, but this was the first time for Hathaway and Adenot. They launched on February 13 on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and their Crew Dragon capsule, named Freedom, reached the station a day later. They stayed nearly eight months and returned to Earth on October 8. They did many science experiments and maintenance jobs. Adenot became the first French woman to do a spacewalk, and with 237 days she set a record for the longest continuous spaceflight by a European.