As an outdoors enthusiast, environmentalist of sorts and a long-time space geek, it's been a pleasure watching the crew of STS-125 on their five spacewalks to upgrade and repair the Hubble Space Telescope. The following comments are from
astronaut Mike Massimino who is currently orbiting above the Earth onboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, STS-125, and they just brought a lump to my throat. THIS is why we should leave no trace, do our utmost not to pollute or air/land/sea/water, etc. THIS is our planet, our home, humanity's liferaft in the cosmos --
Source (read the full article; great quotes!):
Astronaut Looks at Earth: 'It's Too Beautiful' | LiveScience
Quote:
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Originally Posted by Mike Massimino
"There're no words to describe how beautiful things are out there," Massimino said. "So I like to describe what was going through my mind at the time."
Massimino is making his second spaceflight on Atlantis and second trip to Hubble, during which time he made two spacewalks. On his first career spacewalk in 2002, he was so busy helping give Hubble new solar wings he didn't dare look at the Earth. But on his second excursion, the view hit him, and hit him hard.
"It was a day pass and I could view the Earth very clearly. It was right there," Massimino said. "And my first reaction was to look away from it. That it was so beautiful, people weren't supposed to see it."
And then he did what to most people on Earth would be unthinkable.
"I actually turned my head. I thought, I'm not supposed to be looking at this. This was too much to see," Massimino said.
The grandeur of the planet struck Massimino as something more than just beautiful. Something he can picture so clearly, but words fail to explain fully.
"It was like looking into absolute paradise," said Massimino, adding that the view was more than heavenly. |
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