Look after yourself, and our world

HISTORY was made on Saturday night when four astronauts returned to earth from the International Space Station (ISS), after being in space since November last year.

It took about six and a half hours from the time the Space X Dragon capsule left the ISS until it landed in the sea off Florida in the US. Inside the capsule were four astronauts, including Victor Glover, who became the first African American to spend such a long time in space.

Nasa has sent more than 300 astronauts into space but Glover was only the 15th African American. Currently Nasa has about 48 active astronauts and only four of them are black.

During February this year, Kamala Harris, America’s vice president, called the ISS to chat to Glover about his achievement as the first African American on such a long-duration mission to the space station.

“I really appreciate that legacy and I try to do my best to honour it,” Glover said.

Harris is the first woman and the first black woman to be elected vice president of America.

During their chat, Glover reflected on seeing Earth from space.

“It is just a spectacular thing to see from up here. It is very obvious from up here how thin our atmosphere is and how special it is for there to be human life on this planet. It makes me want to do all I can to protect that.”

He echoed the words of Michael Collins, who described the earth as “fragile”. Collins, who died a few days ago at the age of 90, was an astronaut aboard the Apollo 11 mission. It was on this mission that Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two people to walk on the moon. Collins remained in the spacecraft while Armstrong and Aldrin did their now famous small step.

Life on earth is equally fragile and recently Covid-19 has made us realise just how vulnerable we are.

India is currently in the grip of a deadly second wave while experts have warned that a third wave in South Africa is inevitable.

According to the National Institute for Communicable Diseases, a rise in infections is expected by the end of this month and early June as winter sets in. Complacency and the possible mutation of the virus is what is likely to drive the new wave.

If the virus does not mutate locally, the third wave may not be as devastating as the second wave was. However, if it does mutate, the peak could be as bad as what we saw during December last year.

We only have one life.

And, for now, we only know of one planet we can call home. We need to do more to keep ourselves and our planet healthy.