A different view…
I caught the last 10 minutes or so of a television show last night entitled ‘James May at the Edge of Space’, part of a BBC month-long season of programming to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the moon on 20 July 1969. In the program James flew to the edge of space (an altitude of 70,000ft) in a USAF U-2 spy plane.
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What struck me was his reaction to the view of earth from up there on the edge of space - on landing he said something along the lines of ‘if everyone on earth could do [see] that, just once, it would completely change the face of global politics, religion, education, everything! Maybe a slightly simplistic view but certainly an element of truth in his sentiments. I have heard that many astronauts experience profound and deep emotions on seeing their home, planet earth, reduced to an almost insignificant orb in the vastness of space. |
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home to 7 billion souls |
One such astronaut (not sure who but he was from the Apollo program) summed it up very well when he said, that on seeing the earth from 250,000 miles away while in lunar orbit (as in the classic ‘earth rise’ image shown), all he could think of was that the small blue green planet in the distance was home to 5 billion souls!
There are a few billion more souls on earth now but it is very humbling to think that we all inhabit a small planet that is home to each and every one of us. I think it would serve us all well to consider this every once in a while.