Space tourism: an interview with an astronaut

21.07.2023 - 08:38 / roughguides.com

We were lucky enough to welcome an astronaut all the way from the Kennedy Space Center to Rough Guides HQ recently, and we couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask him a few questions.

Astronaut Don Thomas has been to space four times on the NASA space shuttles and takes part in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex's Astronaut Encounter program, imparting tales from his space travels to visitors.

We spoke to him about blasting off from Earth, his time in space and the future of travel.

The first time you look out the window once you're in space, I think the reaction of every astronaut is about the same: first there’s this huge gasp. It goes “Aw, wow!”. You just can't believe what you're looking at.

Even though I had seen many pictures of the Earth taken from space – and I had seen the huge IMAX movies with images of Earth – when I saw it with my own eyes, I just gasped.

I was amazed at the blackness of space. It's a darker, richer colour than I'd ever seen before.

And there, right up against the blackness of space, you have the beautiful blue Earth and the thin layer of atmosphere that's protecting us. It looks quite infinite when you're down on the surface, but from above, looking back at the Earth, our atmosphere appears a paper-thin layer. You sense how fragile this planet really is.

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I always loved passing over Egypt. To see the Nile River – this bright green pathway cutting through the centre of Egypt – was just spectacular. You see the blue water of the Mediterranean and the brown desert areas. This contrast between brown, green and bright blue was just breathtaking and, because I had visited there on Earth, it was extra special for me to see from space.

Another favourite view that we all had – I think almost all the astronauts on board the shuttle agreed – is passing over the Kennedy Space Center. Every time we would pass over there we’d have our noses to the window, pressed up against the glass, and we'd be looking down saying: “Oh there's our launch pad. There's our landing strip.”

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I remember on my first mission, we had launched, and it was a little more than an hour after we'd been in space. I happened to look out the window and I saw Tampa Bay coming up. Just a few seconds later we passed right over the Kennedy Space Center.

As I looked back up at the launch pad, I saw 39A there right, where we had lifted off from an hour and a half earlier. I thought: “I have just been around planet Earth one time and my family is probably stuck in traffic waiting to get back to their hotel after watching the launch."

That really put it all in perspective for me – where I was and what I was doing.

The food is not good, but it's not horrible. It's OK. I tell people I would never go to a restaurant that