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[ Music ]

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>> My first look at the earth
from that vantage point was

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on ascent in my [inaudible],

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looking at the aft
window behind me,

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knowing that I was the
first one that had to get

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out of their seat and film our
external tank falling away.

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That was my first job,

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aside from all the
monitoring that I had to do.

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And so, my view of it was very
fleeting and very technical.

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It was background to the
task that I had at hand,

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and that was pointing a
camera at an external tank,

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so that could be analyzed.

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Then when we got into orbit, we
had a very fast-paced mission,

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which all Space Shuttle
missions were.

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You had 10 to 12 days
of fast-paced work.

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And it was my commander, Scott
Kelly, who carved out 90 minutes

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of entire orbit on flight day
10, and he said to the rookies,

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the three of us, "I want
you guys all on that window,

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and I don't want you to move."

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And he already pre-coordinated
it, got the lights turned off

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on the station, so we could
see everything in its grandeur.

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And that was the first moment
that I had to really soak it in

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and discovered a lot of things
about my reaction to that view,

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in that relatively
short period of time.

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[ Music ]

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And then, of course, there
was my Space Station flight,

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where I lived up
there for six months.

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And every night that I could,
I was planted in that cupola,

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much like the picture
shows, and gazing at it.

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And there wasn't a
single regret I had

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about the time I spent there.

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In fact, it almost, I dare say,
grieved me, to think about how

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in the world am I
going to describe this.

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There's no words.

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There's no picture I could
take, to do it justice.

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There's no watercolors
that I could put on paper,

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to come close to the vividness,
the ever-changing picture

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that I see, staring
at this planet.

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Everything from the colors

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to what changes the
atmosphere goes through,

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depending on where the sun
angle is and whether the moon's

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in the view or not to
just how fast we're going

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over the surface of it, and
the way shadows are changing.

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You could see the same landmass
over a period of two weeks,

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and it looks completely
different, because of that.

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To then looking at the
stars and the blackness,

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a black that nothing here
on earth ever can replicate.

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[ Music ]

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And then, you look at the
Space Station around you,

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and you're like,
this is amazing.

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And all the people who are
a part of this structure,

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that are, I know, either
at their desks, you know,

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creating the next great
marvel, or they're sitting

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in Mission Control,
controlling everything I see,

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and that's where it kind
of hits you, and you are

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but a small fraction of the
human race that will ever get