From a Distance

In honor of Earth Day, some newspapers are printing what astronauts have to say about our home planet.


For Earth Day, the Associated Press asked space travelers to recall what it's like to see Earth from above:

"You can see what a small little atmosphere is protecting us. You realize there's not much protecting this planet, particularly when you see the view from the side."— SUNITA WILLIAMS, who has been living on the international space station since Dec. 11, 2006.

"I left Earth three times. I found no place else to go. Please take care of Spaceship Earth."— WALLY SCHIRRA, Mercury, Gemini and Apollo in the 1960s

"You come back impressed, once you've been up there, with how thin our little atmosphere is that supports all life here on Earth. So if we foul it up, there's no coming back from something like that."— JOHN GLENN, first American in orbit (1962)

"It's something that many people take for granted when they're born and they grow up within the environment. But they don't realize what they have. And I didn't till I left it."— JIM LOVELL, Apollo 8 and 13

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