[MUSIC] Welcome back to the introduction to The Orbital Perspective. Last week we talked about NASA Image Destination AS8142383. We talked about the story of Earth rise and how that was a significant moment in the history of humanity. And we closed with a sermon, the Christmas sermon on peace given by Dr. Martin Luther King, where he talked about the interrelated structure of all reality. And we talked about how this is not a philosophy or a cliche, this is fact. This is the reality of the world that we live in. And I said last week that to illustrate this fact, I would take you on a journey to space and back. So today we're going to do just that. [MUSIC] One of my most vivid childhood memories and the moment when I realized that I wanted to be an astronaut was July 28th, 1969. On that day, I, as a young boy along with millions and millions of people around the world to watched those first footsteps on the moon. Now I don't think I would have been able to put it in these words at the time, but at some level I realized that we had just become a different species. We're a species no longer confined to our planet. And I wanted to be a part of that group of explorers that was able to step off our planet and look back upon ourselves. That dream was realized about four decades later when on May 31st, 2008, I along with the crew of STS124 launched into space onboard space shuttle Discovery. On the day of the launch, I remember waking up at the crew quarters of the Kennedy Space Center in Florida getting our space suits on. And leaving the facility, walking over to the Astro van, waving to everybody who was gathered as we are on our way out. And we have this journey out to the launch pad. We got there and it was very empty. And normally there's hundreds and hundreds of people around. But that day there was just a few technicians to strap us in. One by one we took our turns climbing through the hatch and on into our respective places in the spacecraft. And then we had some time to think. We had a few hours laying on our backs waiting for our launch. [LAUGH] And it's one of those wonderful moments that life gives you for self reflection. And I briefly wondered what I was getting myself into as I was strapped to four and a half million pounds of explosives. Right in front of me in the control panel of space shuttle Discovery was a digital countdown timer. And as it counted down below a minute, I got ready for what was going to be a spectacular launch into space. And as the clock counted down below ten seconds I got ready for the main engines to light. At six seconds remaining, a low rumble started that built rapidly in intensity. Negative. we are go for main engine start. >> Six seconds. Main engine start. Feet come up. 300, ang on. >> 102, 102, auto, auto. I see three at 404. I see a command at the wall. >> Houston, Discovery on program. >> I'm LB Lynch. >> Roger Rover, Discovery. >> Houston, now controlling the flight of Discovery, a man made- >> What a view outside. [MUSIC] At eight and a half minutes, all three engines shut down abruptly according to plan. And all of us went from being pushed into our seats at three times our normal weight, 3 G's. And feeling like it was an elephant sitting on our chest to being weightless instantly and it was an incredible feeling. I was also acutely aware at this moment that my childhood dream of flying in space had just come true. But on that first day, that first day in space, the most memorable moment was when I looked out the window for the first time. When all my tasks were over, I was able to unstrap, float over to the window and really take a look at our planet. It was absolutely breathtaking. I remember the first thing that hit me in that moment was just how thin the atmosphere appeared. And in that moment, I had the realization, the sobering realization that this paper thin layer is what is keeping every living thing on our planet alive. And it was a very sobering thought. And really gave me the sense that we live on a very fragile planet. But in spite of this fragility I couldn't help but fall in love with the beauty of our planet. It's a constant dance of colors and motion and light. And as we cross into the dark side of the orbit, as the sun was setting. And we saw thunderstorms casting long shadows on the horizon. And watched as the clouds turned to pink and to red and gray and finally black. And watched as we passed onto the dark side of the orbit. All the evidence of human activity. All the lights of the towns and the cities, all of a sudden comes to life. And it really gave me a sense that we're all living on a living breathing organism. There's many other things that we saw that were amazing. We saw paparazzi like flashes of lightning storms, dancing curtains of auroras that felt so close that you can reach out and touch them. It was an incredibly moving visual experience. But it was also much, much more than just a visual experience. In some way that I can't fully explain, being physically detached from the only world I had ever known made me feel deeply interconnected with everyone on it. My circle of kinship, if you will, extended much farther than it had ever extended before. In fact, it extended to the entire planet. I launched into space with a belief that right now we already have all the technology, all the resources necessary, to solve many if not all the problems facing our planet. I know this is a very bold statement. But if this is bold statement is true, then why do we still face so many critical issues and problems? I think that my time in space gave me some of the seeds to the answer. And in this next lesson, we're going to dive into exploring some of those seeds. And explore the idea that if we do have all the tools, all the resources necessary, how can we use those to actually solve the problems that we all face? And how can we do it together? So see you in the next lesson.
