Astronaut looking at the Earth with a flower.
Credits: Image by Chil Vera from Pixabay
Looking at the Earth from space is not just a wow moment, it’s a cognitive shift!
Listen to The Overview Effect Pt.6 by Jet Black Sea to best enjoy reading this post.
One of the most pleasant surprises of human spaceflight is the discovery of our home planet. Almost all astronauts experience a sudden revelation when looking at the Earth hanging in the black Universe. This unique feeling is called the Overview Effect.
The strongest Overview Effect has been felt by the astronauts performing a spacewalk, being exposed to space with just a helmet’s visor between the eyes and the special view of the Earth surrounded by the darkness of space.
This happened also in the first spacewalk of a private astronaut, during the Polaris Dawn mission. Jared Isaacman, commander of Polaris Dawn and EV1, the first astronaut to get out in space, exclaimed as soon as he saw the Earth directly at an altitude of around 700 Km: “Back at home, we all have a lot of work to do, but from here, Earth sure looks like a perfect world”.
Those insightful words directly express the new level of awareness unlocked by the Overview Effect. Many others have been said during the years, as I reported in the revised section of the Becoming Spacepolitans blog about the Overview Effect phenomenon.
Did I arouse your curiosity? So, jump to the page and have a look!
What’s the next Becoming Spacepolitans section to be updated? Humans in Space, the section dedicated to the human spaceflight seems the perfect candidate, after its new chapter written by the first Polaris mission.
So, watch out here or subscribe to my blog notification at the bottom of the home page to be informed about the mystical publication.
Space for All, All for Space!
Becoming Spacepolitans 