snapshots

Apparently cosmonauts are the great champions of environmental and humanitaran causes because of the sheer impact of being removed from the planet and seeing it from above. If only everyone on the planet could have the opportunity to travel into space and see the earth in its entirety.

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small. - Neil Armstrong

It's a very sobering feeling to be up in space and realize that one's safety factor was determined by the lowest bidder on a government contract. - Alan Shepard

For those who have seen the Earth from space, and for the hundreds and perhaps thousands more who will, the experience most certainly changes your perspective. The things that we share in our world are far more valuable than those which divide us. - Donald Williams

For the first time in my life I saw the horizon as a curved line. It was accentuated by a thin seam of dark blue light - our atmosphere. Obviously this was not the ocean of air I had been told it was so many times in my life. I was terrified by its fragile appearance. - Ulf Merbold

The Earth was small, light blue, and so touchingly alone, our home that must be defended like a holy relic. The Earth was absolutely round. I believe I never knew what the word round meant until I saw Earth from space. - Aleksei Leonov

Before I flew I was already aware of how small and vulnerable our planet is; but only when I saw it from space, in all its ineffable beauty and fragility, did I realize that human kind's most urgent task is to cherish and preserve it for future generations. — Sigmund Jähn

From space I saw Earth indescribably beautiful with all the scars of national boundaries gone. - Muhammed Ahmad Faris

The first day, we pointed to our countries. Then we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day we were aware of only one Earth. — Sultan Bin Salmon al-Saud