True Values. The Earth from the Space

When astronauts return from space, what they talk about isn’t the brute force of the rocket launch or the exhilaration of zero gravity. It’s the view. And it’s mankind’s rarest view of all, Earth from afar.

Only two dozen men – those who journeyed to the moon – have seen the full Earth view. Most space travellers, in low orbit, see only a piece of the planet – a lesser but still impressive glimpse. They have seen the curvature of Earth, its magnificent beauty, its fragility, and its lack of borders.

The first full view of Earth came from the moon-bound Apollo 8 during the waning days of a chaotic 1968. Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders put it in perspective in a documentary: “We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.”

For Earth Day this year – at a time when perhaps some perspective is needed – the Associated Press asked space travellers to recall what it’s like to see Earth from above:

The First Man in the Space. Part 2

Continuation. Please go here for the beginning

«Zarya» asked what I saw below. I said that our planet looks almost the same as when you see it from a jet flying high above the Earth. Mountain chains, big rivers, large woods, groups of islands, coastlines were distinctly seen. I
saw clouds and light shadows on the far dear Earth.

For a moment a son of a farmer awakened in me. The absolutely black sky looked like a fallow field being sown with seeds of stars…

I wanted to observe the Moon, to learn how it looked in the space. But, unfortunately, its crescent was out of my sight during the flight. “Anyway, – I thought, – I will see it during the next flight”.

The spaceship entered the side of our Planet which was not lit up by the Sun. Immediately it became absolutely dark…

At 9:51 the automatic system of orientation switched on. After the “Vostok” had left the shadow side, there appeared the rays of the Sun shining through the atmosphere of the Earth. The horizon became bright orange gradually turning into all the colors of the rainbow: light blue, dark blue, violet, black. Indescribable colour spectrum! Like in the paintings by Rerikh!

The First Man in the Space

The first Russian Cosmonauts. Yury Gagarin, the first man to enter the Space, is the second on the right.
At first sight it may seem that the story below and spirituality have nothing in common. But there is one thing which is very important to understand: “it is very important to know your own country, to love your country. If you do not know your country, how can you love it?” (the words by Shri Mataji).  And some spiritually developed people also add that if a person does not love his own country, he cannot respect other countries.

Several weeks ago I paid attention to the book which my husband was reading and understood that, except for the fact that the Russian cosmonaut, Yury Gagarin, was the first man who went spaceward, I knew nothing about the event.

For example, did you know that the space-suit of the first man who went into the space was bright orange? 🙂 Below I am sharing some more information conveyed through the words of Yury Gagarin himself (the translation is made by me).