Astronaut Perspectives from 25 Years in Low Earth Orbit

To see Earth from space is to be forever changed by the view. Since Alan Shepard became the first American to lay eyes on our home planet from above, countless NASA astronauts have described feeling awed by the astonishing sight and a profound shift in perspective that followed.

This unique experience is known as the overview effect – a term coined in 1987 by space philosopher and author Frank White in a book of the same name. The phenomenon creates powerful changes in the way astronauts think about Earth and life and can be particularly strong for those who lived and worked aboard the International Space Station during its 25 years of continuous human presence. The orbiting laboratory’s cupola module, equipped with seven windows looking down on Earth, provides the perfect place for observation and reflection.

As Artemis II Mission Specialist Christina Koch explained:

The overview effect is when you’re looking through the cupola and you see the Earth as it exists with the whole universe in the background. You see the thin blue line of the atmosphere, and then when you’re on the dark side of the Earth, you actually see this very thin green line that shows you where the atmosphere is. What you realize is every single person that you know is sustained and inside of that green line and everything else outside of it is completely inhospitable. You don’t see borders, you don’t see religious lines, you don’t see political boundaries. All you see is Earth and you see that we are way more alike than we are different.”

Continue reading on NASA website.