Atmosphere, CO2 on my mind by Daniel Lux

A wayward and fearless child, today he would, in his own words, probably have been diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). Kelly’s journey to the International Space Station follows a different trajectory than what we might expect from an astronaut. All people are inescapably interconnected.” Perhaps this elementary and humanist view on Earth truly resonates, as it comes from someone who had left our planet and one of the less than 600 humans ever to have ventured above the Earth’s atmosphere. Seen through the window of the International Space Station “Seen from space, Earth has no borders. At this time, it seems poignant to take in Kelly’s description of our planet. We live in a time when the world community faces significant challenges, environmentally, in terms of pandemics, and on many other fronts.

In the weightlessness above the atmosphere, nature held a specific emotional gravity for Scott Kelly. Conversely, he also found solace and a sense of belonging in bird song recordings, rustling trees, and buzzing mosquitoes. His longing for the color green, for the smell of fresh dirt - proved one of the significant challenges to his year in orbit. When asked during the beginning of the Corona pandemic to reflect on his year-long confinement at the International Space Station between March 2015 and March 2016, Scott remembers how nature was a central figure in his experience.

What he, of course, was unaware of was that he too would be breaking new frontiers, more specifically to hold the record for the longest single space mission by an American, with 342 consecutive days spent away from Earth. Scott Kelly remembers being aware of the moon landing aged five, mindful of those famous words on humankind’s giant leap, spoken by his fellow American Neil Armstrong. It was a song that underscored a new era in space travel and echoed through a time of social shifts and change. David Bowie’s seminal song “Space Oddity”, about Major Tom, was released only five days before the United States’ Apollo 11 mission and an additional five days before the first human walked the Moon.

Atmosphere, CO2 on my mind by Daniel Lux