from that orbital vantage point,

the Earth is this little blue marble.

The perspective that you get from that vantage point

cognitively changes you.

(peaceful music)

The orbital shift, for me, happened after I broke bread

with my space station crew mates

and my space shuttle crew mates.

We're listening to Sade, we're eating this meal,

and we're doing what people used to fight against.

Russia and Germans were on our flight.

It just showed me how close we are as countries,

as races, as species.

To think that we have all these, you know, distances

and separations and geographical boundaries,

but in space you don't see any of those.

I think the thing that changes your thinking in space

is that you're doing something that only a very small

number of people have done.

In the history of human space flight

it's only been like 500 people that have

had this opportunity to go off the planet.

And now you're one of them.

You get much calmer when you come back from space

because the things that you thought were a big deal

are no longer a big deal.

These things that are happening day to day,

like a hang nail or tripping,

or someone cutting you off in traffic,

it pales in comparison to the experience that you have had.

Space transformed me to think about

how do we get that next generation to take my seat

and go off somewhere else and do much better things?

(rockets firing)