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Ex-NASA astronaut explains why he was 'underwhelmed' the first time he saw Earth from space

Home> News> Science

Published 20:35 24 Feb 2025 GMT

Ex-NASA astronaut explains why he was 'underwhelmed' the first time he saw Earth from space

Astronaut Garrett Reisman logged over 107 days in space from 2008 to 2010

Anish Vij

Anish Vij

Featured Image Credit: Joe Rogan Experience

Topics: Joe Rogan, NASA, Space

Anish Vij
Anish Vij

Anish is a Journalist at LADbible Group and is a GG2 Young Journalist of the Year 2025. He has a Master's degree in Multimedia Journalism and a Bachelor's degree in International Business Management. Apart from that, his life revolves around the ‘Four F’s’ - family, friends, football and food. Email: [email protected]

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@Anish_Vij

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Garrett Reisman isn't your average astronaut.

In 2003, the former NASA engineer spent two weeks living 62ft below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean at Aquarius Reef Base, Florida.

This was to prepare for future trips to the International Space Station, something the 57-year-old has done twice, from 2008 to 2010.

Garrett Reisman left NASA in 2011 (NASA)
Garrett Reisman left NASA in 2011 (NASA)

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Having logged over 107 days in space, however, the ex-astronaut insists that he was 'underwhelmed' when he saw Earth for the first time.

Normally, astronauts go on about the 'overview effect', which is the feeling of unexpected and overwhelming emotion when looking at Earth from space, a kind of like 'we're all in this together' vibe.

"And what that felt like is really, really, hard to describe in words, but if I had to pick one word to describe what I was feeling at that moment, it would be 'meh'," he said on the Joe Rogan Experience back in 2020.

Many astronauts experience the 'overview effect' (Getty Images/Bettmann)
Many astronauts experience the 'overview effect' (Getty Images/Bettmann)

At the risk of sounding pretty ungrateful, Reisman went on to make a really good point about why he felt that way.

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He said: "Yeah, they call that the overview effect. And a lot of guys come back and talk about that, and they really feel it, and they talk about a world without borders.

"And, it's a beautiful sentiment, and I don't want to knock that in any way.

"When you look down and you see the planet and you realise that we're all in the same boat, you know.

"But that didn't strike me as a sudden realisation because I knew that before I went.

Reisman continued: "You shouldn't have to go and strap into a rocket and blast off and look at the Earth and know that basically, we're all human beings.

"I think the things that unite us are so much stronger and more important than the crazy little things that divide us, like race or sex or nationality or politics or whatever.

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"And you at the end of the day, we have this one home, and we're all stuck here together.

"So I had that strong knowledge before I went and maybe that's why, when I look down, I'm like, 'Yeah, there it is. OK. I get it'.

"But it wasn't like all of a sudden, like the shade was pulled back and there was suddenly a new realisation about life."

It's hard to knock him on that one.

  • Astronaut shares the big 'lie' he realised after seeing the Earth during 178 days in space
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