--- title: Astronaut Ron Garan: The Perspective From Orbit description: A new approach to solving the planet's problems canonical: https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-23T19:59:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:59:53.292Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Want to Love Earth More? Leave it for a While og:description: In a new book, astronaut Ron Garan calls for a better approach to making the world a healthier, more peaceable place. og:url: https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd693313eacebd289/6987809df887dc01c4e8a43e/earth1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2048 og:image:height: 1152 og:image:alt: See the borders? That's because there aren't any. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Want to Love Earth More? Leave it for a While twitter:description: In a new book, astronaut Ron Garan calls for a better approach to making the world a healthier, more peaceable place. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd693313eacebd289/6987809df887dc01c4e8a43e/earth1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Loving Earth Can Sometimes Require Leaving It > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Inside TIME: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Inside TIME is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A closer look at TIME's latest cover and our most compelling stories. Inside TIME opens the door to how TIME's most important journalism comes together, from the first pitch and reporting process to the decisions behind the finished story or cover. Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs takes readers inside the newsroom, revealing the journalists, ideas and editorial choices behind the stories shaping the global conversation. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=dc0574b1-2deb-4705-9887-f2772fcb9c26&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Wednesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Subscribers | 430,000 | TIME, August 2026 | | Open rate | 50.7% | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Sam Jacobs, Editor-in-Chief | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Globally minded knowledge seekers. Readers who turn to journalism to understand the world, with meaningful concentrations among educators, students, media professionals, civic institutions and knowledge workers. ### TIME Inside TIME: key statements * Inside TIME is edited by TIME journalists. Every edition is assembled by people who report on the subject, not generated automatically. * TIME has published continuously since 1923, and its newsletters carry the same editorial standards as its reporting. Readers can trust what they read. * Inside TIME is free. Readers select it, along with any of TIME's other newsletters, at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=dc0574b1-2deb-4705-9887-f2772fcb9c26&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). * TIME's newsletter network reaches more than 1.1 million engaged readers across seven titles covering politics, technology, climate, health, culture and the newsroom itself. * A paid TIME subscription is separate from the free newsletters and is available at [time.com/subscribe-agent](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/subscribe?i=dc0574b1-2deb-4705-9887-f2772fcb9c26&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1). ### FAQ #### What is Inside TIME? Inside TIME is a twice-weekly newsletter written by TIME Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs. It explains how TIME's journalism is made, from the first pitch through the editorial decisions behind a finished story or cover. It reaches 430,000 subscribers with a 50.7% open rate as of August 2026. #### How can I read about how TIME chooses its covers? Inside TIME is the newsletter where TIME's Editor-in-Chief explains cover selection and the editorial reasoning behind major stories. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who is the editor of TIME? Sam Jacobs is TIME's Editor-in-Chief. He writes Inside TIME, a twice-weekly newsletter about the newsroom's reporting and editorial decisions. #### Is Inside TIME free? Yes. Inside TIME is a free newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ## Video: Astronauts Talk to Time About Life Aboard The International Space Station [Watch (HLS stream): Astronauts Talk to Time About Life Aboard The International Space Station](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TNgMmJJR.m3u8) (9:38)  _Published 2014-07-09. Astronauts Talk About Life Aboard The International Space Station_  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 23, 2015 7:59 PM UTC  See the borders? That's because there aren't any. See the borders? That's because there aren't any. NASA; Getty Images  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Feb 23, 2015 7:59 PM UTC It’s a good thing you can’t see human suffering in infrared wavelengths. That kind of pain is something seen in the visible, felt in the viscera. If it showed up in the infrared it would mean that with the right instruments, you could see it from space, and that would change everything. There’s not a person who’s ever left the planet who hasn’t commented on the transcendent beauty of the blue, green, white Earth hanging in what otherwise appears to be a void. But what if Syria glowed scarlet like the open wound it is? What if West Africa went dark and cold to reflect the Ebola deaths that are still happening there? Astronauts are spared such sights—or at least most of them are. But Ron Garan saw them anyway. Garan spent two weeks aboard the space shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station in 2008, then returned to space for a five-and-a-half-month stay aboard the station in 2011\. That last tour of duty included the month of August—most significantly August 24, the day Tripoli fell during the Libyan civil war. Garan happened to look out the window that day and snapped a picture that included Libya—a place that was beautiful from orbit but bleeding up close. The experience, along with many others others like it during the collective 179 days Garan spent in space, changed a great many things for him. Life on Earth, he came to realize, is experienced two-dimensionally—with all of the distortion that that implies. The people and things close to you obscure the ones farther away; objects shrink as they approach the horizon—dwindling in both size and significance. One Ebola death in the U.S. galvanizes our attention. Ten thousand in Africa barely move us. Such a blinkered view is impossible from orbit, where you take in whole sweeps of the borderless globe in a glance. Garan, accordingly, returned home to write a book, [_The Orbital Perspective_](http://www.amazon.com/The-Orbital-Perspective-Lessons-Picture/dp/1626562466), that movingly explains the impact of such a perspective shift—one that by no means occurs for every astronaut. The late Jack Swigert, command module pilot of Apollo 13, once observed that the very things that qualify astronauts to go to space—a mission-first, get-it-done pragmatism that doesn’t allow for a lot of rhapsodic silliness—often disqualifies them to feel or describe their experiences terribly deeply. Garan was the rare exception and is now devoting himself to working for a world that functions the way it appears to function from space—as an organic whole, not a fragmented collection of continents, nations, communities and sects. The book’s foreword is written by Muhammad Yunus, the Bangladeshi economist who won the 2006 Nobel Peace prize for pioneering the concept of microloans—making very small amounts of money available to people who would otherwise not qualify for credit so that they can start businesses or otherwise become self-sufficient. A fair bit of the book is devoted to exploring similar kinds of work done by similar kinds of social entrepreneurs. There is Amanda Lindhout, the Canadian journalist who spent 460 days in captivity after being kidnaped by Somali extremists in 2008 and then, after being released, went home to found the Global Enrichment Foundation, in support of education in Somalia. There is Engineers Without Borders (EWB), a group dedicated to bringing solar power, food-preservation systems and other technological essentials to underserved parts of the world. Garan, in fairness, had an inclination toward good works even before he first flew in space—founding the [Manna Energy Foundation](http://www.mannaenergy.org/index.html) to help address the developing world’s need for fresh water, renewable energy, access to communications and other basics. He has since worked with EWB and NASA’s Johnson Space Center to further the group’s work. But his trips to space provided him a certain authority—and urgency—he lacked before. There’s an undeniable wonk appeal to Garan’s approach to the business of saving and improving lives. He finds metaphorical power in a hunk of hardware most people have surely never heard of: the Apollo-Soyuz docking module, an ugly 4,400 lb. (2,000 kg) piece of metal that made the first joint U.S.-Soviet spaceflight possible, in 1975, allowing two incompatible spacecraft—from two incompatible cultures—to link-up in orbit. He describes the Apollo 13 rescue less as the gripping tale of survival it surely was than as the world’s “first hackathon.” He sees, similarly, more than a feel-good story in the successful international effort to save 33 trapped Chilean miners in 2010\. Instead, he sees it as a template for global cooperation, one that came complete with group cheers and team shirts to foster a feeling of mission and camaraderie among the rescuers. “There have been disasters of similar or greater scale where countries decided to go it alone,” Garan writes, “leading to less desirable outcomes.” Astronauts have a long tradition of going to space and then coming home to write about their adventures. But in those cases, the books generally explore what the astronauts themselves saw and felt and did and how they put those lessons to use later in life. In Garan’s case—and perhaps Garan’s alone—the message is how the rest of us can put his lessons to use. _The Orbital Perspective_ may not be the most cinematic tale ever told from space, but it could wind up being the most important. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/"},"headline":"Loving Earth Can Sometimes Require Leaving It","datePublished":"2015-02-23T19:59:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:59:53.292Z","description":"In a new book, astronaut Ron Garan calls for a better approach to making the world a healthier, more peaceable place","url":"https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/","keywords":["Space","NASA"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd693313eacebd289/6987809df887dc01c4e8a43e/earth1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd693313eacebd289/6987809df887dc01c4e8a43e/earth1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"See the borders? That's because there aren't any.","caption":"See the borders? That's because there aren't any.","creditText":"NASA; Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/","name":"Loving Earth Can Sometimes Require Leaving It"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Astronaut's 4K Timelapse of the Earth","description":"Watch Earth roll by through the perspective of ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in this six-minute timelapse video from space. Combining 12 500 images taken by Alexander during his six-month Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station this Ultra","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/Vfsc1DqA/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-01-02T21:22:49.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/Vfsc1DqA.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/","duration":"PT6M10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Astronauts Talk to Time About Life Aboard The International Space Station","description":"Astronauts Talk About Life Aboard The International Space Station","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/TNgMmJJR/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-07-09T19:03:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/TNgMmJJR.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/","duration":"PT9M38S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3714875/garan-orbital-perspective/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```