Quote of the day
"It was the most beautiful, heart-catching sight of my life, one that sent a torrent of nostalgia, of sheer homesickness, surging through me. It was the only thing in space that had any colour to it. Everything else was either black or white. But not the Earth."
Frank Borman of the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon, on the famous Earthrise photo taken by his fellow astronaut Bill Anders.
The image has been credited with giving us a whole new perspective on our insignificance in the universal scheme of things and of kickstarting the environmental movement - not a bad achievement for a mission that began with Borman having an adverse reaction to a sleeping pill which, in the words of Robert Zimmermann, resulted in the crew "scrambling about the cabin, trying to capture blobs of faeces and vomit with paper towels"...
You can read the full story behind the photo here.
Tuesday, December 09, 2008
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3 comments:
Ben, I highly recommend this film.
In the shadow of the moon.
First hand stories from astronauts that give you a real sense of what is was like to prepare for and head up to space. Uses some beautiful footage too, that has not been seen before
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0925248/
Cheers for the recommendation!
Didn't realise Dylan was involved in the space program... Sorry. Was listening to Like A Rolling Stone the very moment I read this post...
During periods of personal stress and upheaval, I often have the crescent of the Earth from space as my PC wallpaper. It's an immensely sobering image that gives almost limitless perspective and always calms me down. I can't even begin to imagine what it must've been like to witness first hand. Maybe someday we'll get the chance, but i won't hold my breath.
Oh and that quote from TS Eliot at the end of the Guardian piece is simply perfect. How wonderful!
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