This morning I received the final version of the foreword to my upcoming book Future Rising, and I love how this frames the book, and sets the tone for what’s to come — can’t wait until others get the chance to read it!
The foreword is written by my good friend and NASA astronaut Cady Coleman. Here’s a taster to wet your appetite:
Andrew opens his book with the famous Earthrise photo, taken in 1968, an image that had a profound impact. As an astronaut who has flown in space twice on the shuttle and lived on the International Space Station, I was privileged to see our earth from space every day for almost 6 months. That perspective is startling.
The earth from space does not look fragile – the rock itself will survive long after we do. But there is a sense of our vulnerability, made palpable on my mission when we viewed the aftermath of the 2011 tsunami in Japan, only days after working with Japanese colleagues on the ground to berth their supply ship to the space station. It was comforting for us as a crew to be able to gather data about the flooding to send back to earth. We also folded origami white cranes and sent video of them floating in space, which played on billboards during the rebuilding to represent hope for the Japanese people.
From that vantage point, it is also clear that all of us come from one place. One planet. One home. We are the crew of Spaceship Earth and it falls to us to find a way to continue to thrive on our precious and beautiful planet. From space, it is clear that there are no borders, and nothing to stop us from being the best of collaborators, to form the best teams, to collectively bring our imaginations to bear to solve the critical problems of our times.
Just over four months to go until publication day!
