Seeing Earth from space for the first time is a special moment. Astronauts often say that it changed them. They come back to Earth with a fierce desire to protect the planet and to protect their fellow earthlings.
"It looked like the only thing in the entire universe. All this inky black void, and Earth was there with this beautiful blue hue to it - the blue marble."
"You've got this planet beneath you, and a lot of what you see, especially during the day, does not necessarily point to a human presence. If you look at it on a geologic timescale, it's almost like we are this flimsy presence, and we really have to stick together as a human family to make sure we are a permanent presence on this planet and not just this blink of an eye."
"The overriding impression I got of life on Earth is how robust it is. Life has managed to essentially completely cover this planet in all sorts of different places - it finds a way."
"You know, we're as much a part of this universe as any speck of stardust, any asteroid. We're a part of this universe."
"There are 6 million of us living in Pakistan. Six million of us? When is that no longer "them?" How did that part of the world, which I've never even been to, now, suddenly, because of the cumulative effect of where I am, start to feel like us? I think that's when the world became one place for me."
