Thread by @spekulatius1984

This morning I've finished Scott Kellys (@StationCDRKelly) Book "Endurance" ( bit.ly/endurance-scot… ). Some thoughts below.

First, thank you Scott for sharing your story along with many personal insights from your time in space. It's great to learn more about the long path to become an astronaut and all the immense effort behind the human space program.

While reading Scotts book I got to understand the scale of the challenges coming with living and working in space better. It starts with having no gravity assisting you with daily life, keeping yourself healthy and alert for the hostile environment you are living in.

But the challenges don't end there. Another challenge in space is a something we often take for granted on earth: Having the people we love and care about around us. Having the chance to share a meal and to talk to the people we care about, face to face, on a regular basis.

We often live close-by our family and friends yet many people have most of their connections via screens. This is sad as you are missing out on having a real connection. Reach out, meet for dinner or take a walk in nature together and reconnect.

After reading "Endurance" I understand the huge drain a year in space puts on your relationship a bit better. I appreciate having the chance to daily hug the person I love even more now.

The hardest part of such a long time in space seems to be missing out on life events on earth. Missing out on birthdays, deaths, public holidays like Christmas as well as other life changing events hurts. It leaves a gap for you and them.

We on Earth are often unaware of the great planet we are all getting to live on. So many people strive for more and more. This separates us from what makes us happy at the end: human connection, real experiences & being in nature.

Page by page I've read about the hard work everyone at @NASA, @roscosmos, @ESA and @JAXA_en is putting in to make human space flight possible and safe.

Scott also reminds us what great international collaboration and amazing engineering effort the @Space_Station actually is. We should value the hard work done to push humanity forward in space and build on it.

A huge thank you to everyone involved with #space programs around the world! If you are fascinated by space travel like @elonmusk, me or many more, you should give Scotts book a read: bit.ly/endurance-scot…

Next stop Mars.

Oh, one more thing: Linguists of Twitter, Scott mentioned that there will be a word for the deep longing for #nature some day. I was wondering if there might be such a word already. Please let me know if you know more.