Rakesh Sharma says boundaries blur in space, astronauts see Earth as one entity

In an interactive session at the Global Space Exploration Conference, Sharma said astronauts who had been to the moon also shared that the Earth appeared more grey and less blue than it did between the first and the last missions.

New Delhi: For astronauts travelling to space, the boundaries dividing nations start to blur and they view the entire Earth as a single entity, India's first astronaut Rakesh Sharma said on Friday.

In an interactive session at the Global Space Exploration Conference here, Sharma said astronauts who had been to the moon also shared that the Earth appeared more grey and less blue than it did between the first and the last missions.

Sharma was participating in an interactive session with astronauts Hazzaa Al Mansoori (UAE), Alper Gezeravci (Turkiye), Michael Lopez-Alegria (US), Indian astronaut-designate Angad Pratap, Eytan Stibbe (Israel), Gopichand Thotakura and Sirisha Bandla.

"The funny thing is that on the first day, you are looking at your country. Then you start noticing that there are no boundaries. So, that helps you see Earth as a single entity. Then you start seeing the degradation that is going on and that wakes you up to the possibility of environmental degradation," Sharma, who travelled to space aboard a Russian mission in 1984, said.

Sharing his experience of seeing the Earth from space, he recalled the forest fires in Myanmar that were sending plumes of smoke to neighbouring countries.

"So, that tells us pollution really is no respecter of boundaries. Therefore, it is in everybody's interest to make sure that the environment that we are enjoying needs to be protected," Sharma said about the thoughts going on in the minds of astronauts during space missions.

"Astronauts who have been to the moon and back have reported that the Earth looks more grey and less blue than it did between the first and the last moon-return missions," Sharma said.

Group Captain Angad Pratap, the astronaut-designate for the Gaganyaan project, spoke about his experience training for India's maiden human space flight, expected to be launched in early 2027.

Singh, a test pilot with the Indian Air Force, said it was a big opportunity in itself to be a part of a space programme that the country was single-handedly spearheading.

"For India, it is not about being the first. It is all about whatever we learn, whatever we achieve in this journey of ours, we want to share it with the world," he said.

"The journey so far has been very very exciting. Being an astronaut is a very different thing altogether. I am completely aware that all the other panellists have already been to space and I am just taking baby steps," said Pratap, who completed his basic training as an astronaut in Russia and at the Astronaut Training Centre in Bengaluru.