ISS 35/36.
My first flight

Alexander Misurkin

... After the launch, at the moment when the nose fairing was released, I had the first opportunity to see the world on the other side of the porthole. And although the rocket continued to gain speed and there was an active section of the trajectory, I could not resist looking in the "window" for a moment. When I first saw the curved horizon line, it flashed through my head: "And yet it's round"…

Immediately after separating from the third stage of the rocket and entering orbit, I got the feeling that I was upside down. Nothing has changed, staying strapped in my seat and looking at the remote control, I perceived its upper edge as the "top", but this was visual. But the vestibular apparatus persistently gave me the feeling that I was turned upside down. Such contradictory information from two sensors significantly slowed down my brain. In addition, upon arrival at the station, I was overtaken by the adaptation to weightlessness. There was no need to remember about the doctors' recommendations: do not make sharp turns of your head, turn around smoothly and with your whole body. I knew myself that this was the only way not to make myself sick. My senior colleagues also didn't need to ask anything to assess my condition: they carefully tied my sleeping bag in the cabin, gave me tea and sent me to recover in the world of dreams. I woke up a different person, the nausea passed, there was only a feeling of inversion, which, however, did not disappear regardless of orientation in space for another day or two. After I woke up, expedition commander Chris Hadfield flew up to me: "Sasha, fly with me. I need to show you something." "Of course, let`s fly," I replied. We arrived at the Cupola, a small module in the form of a panoramic observation dome. Now, we are hanging parallel to each other, slightly holding on to the handrail, looking at our incredible blue planet. And involuntarily I spoke out loud: "I can't believe I'm here." And Chris, even though this was his third flight, said quietly, as if to himself: "Me too."
Later, I made it a rule for myself to fly to the Cupola before going to bed just to watch for a couple of minutes at our planet. Usually, it was after bedtime: everyone in their cabins, the lights off, the ventilation working steadily, the LEDs on the laptops flashing – the station sleeping. I quietly flew through it into the Cupola to observe and to recharge my batteries from the energy of the Planet. And every time there was a lightning-fast desire to grab a camera and capture this beauty. But the next second I stopped myself, because you don't get energy behind the camera, you spend it trying to get the image the way you see it yourself. And here, every look at the planet was worth capturing. I put the camera away and calmly said to myself: "I'm just looking."
And then, in the process of contemplation, I did not stop admiring this miracle. After all, if you look at it, every parameter of the surrounding space is hostile to biological life: radiation, vacuum, temperature. And despite this, somehow, molecule by molecule, a kind of pearl gathers, which in itself creates the necessary conditions and becomes the place of origin of life… And then two questions arise. First, did it really happen by itself, or is it the result of someone's providence? Everyone answers this question for themselves. And the second one - is this really the only such place in the universe? And you know, seeing how, throughout the life of our generation, we first discovered the first exoplanets, then learned to explore basic information about them and began to compare them with Earth, later found a planet that almost completely corresponds to ours in two primary parameters out of five, I absolutely agree with scientists who say that today there is no question "Is there life in the universe?", the question is, "When will we find it?".