A movie about the planet Earth filmed by astronauts from the International Space Station, directed by Tony Myers and narrated by Jennifer Lawrence opens tomorrow (Friday). Astronaut Commander Terry Virts, one of those astronauts on board, says the the fragility of the earth’s ecosystem is undeniable when seen from space.
“Madagascar was kind of a mess. I mean you can really see how they’ve cut down the forest there and you see this red clay kind of running off their island into the ocean. You can see the Amazon; there’s hundreds of big squares of farm field right in the middle of the forest there. In Eastern Asia and specifically China, it was just kind of this brown, smoggy mess, where you could see the pollution.”
Virts says there’s almost no time to enjoy the outer space scenery when you’re doing a space walk, but just a few moments taking in an unfettered view of the universe had a profound effect on him.
“That was a busy, busy three space walks that I did. From the moment I open the hatch to the moment you come in, you’re focused, you’re disciplined. There’s no time for goofing around or looking around or anything. You just have to get your work done because it’s dangerous out there and you just want to finish your work without making a mistake and come inside. But the few minutes I had to look around outside were just amazing. You’re sitting there with this thin, maybe millimeter, maybe two millimeter-thick plastic visor and on the other side of that is outer space. If you take the time to get your face away from the structure and look out into space it’s amazing. You feel like you’re hearing from God out there.”
Terry Virts was a guest on 790 KABC’s McIntyre in the Morning Show with Doug McIntyre and Terri Rae Elmer.
By Sandy Wells
