William Shatner has shared his profound grief after his space flight aboard Blue Origin.
In his newest book, To Boldly Go: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder, William Shatner shared his emotions and experiences from his flight into space on Blue Origin’s rocket launch in October 2021. The 91-year-old compared the flight to a funeral and recalled only seeing sadness. It turns out Shatner isn’t on his own with those feelings.
Sharon and Marc Hagle, the first married couple to fly into space on a commercial vehicle, were also aboard the Blue Origin flight. They both shared with Business Insider that their first space flight was emotional. Sharon said she related to Shatner’s experience, saying “the blackness of space was very opaque. You couldn’t see through it. There was no reflection, no stars, nothing. For me it was like you were on one side of a wall, which was the light, and you wouldn’t be able to pass through that darkness unless you had passed.”
Both William Shatner and the Hagles experienced “the overview effect.”
Astronauts can experience something called the “overview affect,” which is a cognitive shift while viewing Earth from Space. According to We Are Overview, “after observing our planet from the universe, they [the astronauts] feel an obligation and responsibility to take care of that fragile blue dot forever.”
Marc said that it does have a tremendous impact “on you and your soul,” and said that you do have a responsiblity to make the world a better place, and as the Hagles were discussing their experience, they both got emotional, with Sharon saying it has taken months for them to process what they saw from the capsule’s window.
Marc added that “What we learned is you’re so excited about what’s going on and what you’re looking at that the human brain just can’t absorb it all.” The Hagles are planning a return trip to space in the near future with the plan to plan to look out of the same window and point things out to each other when they reach zero-gravity levels.