Flying to space was the culmination of a lifetime of dreams, something I had longed to do since I was a child. I thought I had been prepared for those first moments off of our planet because I had read every book about space, seen every movie, and talked to my fellow astronauts for nearly a decade before my first flight. But those first glimpses of our planet were much more powerful than I had imagined, it was truly surprising.
 

I decided that I would do everything I could to share those experiences and emotions with as many people on Earth as I could. And the best way to do that, in my opinion, was through photography in its various forms. Still images on Twitter and Instagram and in my first book View From Above. Our IMAX film A Beautiful Planet, or my recent films One More Orbit and Cosmic Perspective. Because there is no better way to share the emotion and beauty of space and our planet with people who won’t get the chance to experience it in person than through images.