The View From Space Changes Everything
A good friend of mine has often spoken over the years of the books he’s read and interviews he’s watched of astronauts who have spoken of their experiences. For many, the key takeaway was much less “sciencey” and so very simple: The things we think matter, simply don’t. With the recent news stories and words from astronauts aboard Artemis II, I felt it timely to talk about this.
What if the way we see the world is the problem? Not our opinions, our politics, or even our differences, but the way we see it.
Because the people who have seen Earth from space almost all come back saying the same thing: we’ve gotten it wrong.
From hundreds of miles above Earth, astronauts describe the “Overview Effect,” a shift in awareness where everything changes. They expect to see countries. They don’t. They expect to see borders. They can’t. Instead, they see one planet, one atmosphere, one shared home.
Christina Koch said: “You don’t see borders… we are way more alike than we are different.”
Ron Garan put it this way: “I saw Earth not as a collection of nations, but as a single entity.”
From space, the lines we divide ourselves by simply don’t exist. They are human-made stories.
Scott Kelly added: “From space, you realize how small and interconnected we all are.”
And that’s the part we keep missing. We are not separate from each other, or from this planet. We are one system. You don’t have to go to space to understand it. You just have to be willing to see differently.
Because the borders we defend are imaginary. But the consequences we face are not. And neither is the opportunity to change.
Before we lose something we can’t get back.
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