Astronauts Recall View Before Earth Day

This Dec.1972 photo released by NASA shows a view of the Earth as seen by the Apollo 17 crew while traveling toward the Moon. Only two dozen men, those who traveled to the Moon, have had the full Earth view. Most U.S. spaceflights have been in low orbit, where only a piece of the Earth can be seen, a lesser but still impressive glimpse.The photograph extends from the Mediterranean Sea area, top, to the Antarctica South polar ice cap, made visible for the first time by the Apollo trajectory. (AP Photo/Courtesy of Earth Sciences and Image Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center) (AP)

_Anousheh Ansari, Iranian-American space tourist who flew last year to the international space station.

"Up in space when you see a sunset or sunrise, the light is coming to you from the sun through that little shell of the Earth's atmosphere and back out to the spacecraft you're in. The atmosphere acts like a prism. So for a short period of time you see not only the reds, oranges and yellows, the luminous quality like you see on Earth, but you see the whole spectrum red-orange-yellow-blue-green-indigo-violet.

"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 to orbit the Earth (1962) and former U.S. senator.

"I think you can't go to space and not be changed, in many ways ....

"All of the teachings of the Bible that talk about the creator and his creation take on new meaning when you can view the details of the Earth from that perspective. So it didn't change my faith per se, the content of it, but it just enhanced it, it made it even more real."

_Jeff Williams, spent 6 months on the space station and set a record for most Earth photos taken.

"Earth has gone through great transitions and volcanic impacts and all sorts of traumatic things. But it has survived ... I'm not referring to human conflicts. I'm referring to the physical appearance of the Earth at a great distance. That it generally is mostly very peaceful (when) looked at from a distance."

_Buzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon.

"I see the deep black of space and this just brilliantly gorgeous blue and white arc of the earth and totally unconsciously, not at all able to help myself, I said, 'Wow, look at that.'"

_Kathy Sullivan, first American woman to spacewalk, recalling what she said when she saw Earth in 1984.

"...From up there, it looks finite and it looks fragile and it really looks like just a tiny little place on which we live in a vast expanse of space. It gave me the feeling of really wanting us all to take care of the Earth. I got more of a sense of Earth as home, a place where we live. And of course you want to take care of your home. You want it clean. You want it safe."