The Earth Is Blue... How Wonderful. It

The Path Of A Cosmonaut Is Not An Easy, Triumphant March To Glory. You Have To Get To Know The Meaning Not Just Of Joy But Also Of Grief, Before Being Allowed In The Spacecraft Cabin.

What Beauty. I Saw Clouds And Their Light Shadows On The Distant Dear Earth.... The Water Looked Like Darkish, Slightly Gleaming Spots.... When I Watched The Horizon, I Saw The Abrupt, Contrasting Transition From The Earth's Light-colored Surface To The Absolutely Black Sky. I Enjoyed The Rich Color Spectrum Of The Earth. It Is Surrounded By A Light Blue Aureole That Gradually Darkens, Becoming Turquiose, Dark Blue, Violet, And Finally Coal Black.

Looking At The Earth From Afar You Realize It Is Too Small For Conflict And Just Big Enough For Co-operation.

I Could Have Gone On Flying Through Space Forever.

To Be The First To Enter The Cosmos, To Engage, Single-handed, In An Unprecedented Duel With Nature-could One Dream Of Anything More?