William Shatner never saw Earth the same after going to space — he's not alone

Spending time in space takes a toll on the body.

And for many space travelers, it can alter the mind as well — or rather, one’s perspective.

Most recently, Star Trek actor William Shatner described a profound and somber mindset shift when he saw Earth from above during his 2021 Blue Origin flight.

“It was among the strongest feelings of grief I have ever encountered.

The contrast between the vicious coldness of space and the warm nurturing of Earth below filled me with overwhelming sadness.

Every day, we are confronted with the knowledge of further destruction of Earth at our hands: the extinction of animal species, of flora and fauna...

“...things that took five billion years to evolve, and suddenly we will never see them again because of the interference of mankind.

It filled me with dread. My trip to space was supposed to be a celebration; instead, it felt like a funeral.”

“Each of us have been changed in a way that maybe we didn’t expect.

And for me, it was being able to see the Earth in a way that made me realize there is so much to see in person that I need to and find those places and explore more.”

“It’s a feeling of interconnectivity that you sometimes just don’t get when you’re in the middle of something.

I think separating ourselves from things that are important to us is good because you then appreciate it in a new way. That definitely happened for me with Earth.”

“I remember the first time that I looked towards the horizon. I saw the blackness of space and then this bright, blue Earth.

And then I noticed, right along the horizon, it looked as if someone had taken a royal blue crayon and just traced along Earth’s horizon.

Then I realized that that blue line, that really thin royal blue line, was Earth’s atmosphere ...

... and that’s all there was of it. And it’s so clear from that perspective how fragile our existence is.

It makes you appreciate how important it is to take care of that atmosphere.”

“You see how fragile the atmosphere looks. It's very thin. It's almost like a thin contact lens over somebody's eye, and you realized all the pollutants we put into the atmosphere are contained in that very thin film over the surface. It's a little bit scary actually to look at it.”

“For me, the experience was one that made me feel very connected with the universe. I felt my being was as much a part of this universe as any star, as any comet.

It helped me to recognize that right now, we’re in space. This Earth is part of that universe.”

“To look up in the black sky ... the totally black sky and [see] another planet — planet Earth ... it makes it looks beautiful, it makes it look lonely, it makes it look fragile.

You think to yourself, just imagine that millions of people are living on this planet and don’t realize how fragile it is.”