An Astronauts Perspective

Donald Williams, born February 13, 1942 became an astronaut in 1978 and logged over 288 hours in space on two separate flights before retiring in 1990. He had this to say about our planet.

"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."

We live together on a big blue marble breathing the same air, drinking the same water, sharing the same resources. Yet we act as if, should we mess this planet up and make it uninhabitable, we have somewhere else to go.

Perhaps we should all step back just a bit and look at our planet as Saturn sees us. We are that tiny speck of light, smaller than a pinpoint at about 11:00 just inside the faint outer ring. Can you see us? Has your perspective now changed as well?

Photo taken of the outer solar system through Cassini's cameras. Cassini is an unmanned deep space exploration craft on a mission to Saturn and Titan. At this time, Cassini was nearly 1.5 billion kilometers (930 million miles) from Earth. The earth and moon in this photo are not more than a few pixels across.

Your thoughts?