It’s always good to make friends with your neighbors …
Witness a remarkable exchange between sailors racing against the forces of nature in the Southern Ocean and NASA astronauts on the largest modular space station in low Earth orbit. These two crews share a unique bond, experiencing life in extreme and hostile environments, limited living conditions, and both undertake scientific experiments for the health of the planet.
During Leg 3 of The Ocean Race - the world’s longest and toughest sporting event - the only US-entry in the race, 11th Hour Racing Team, reached the most remote location on Earth … ‘Point Nemo’. Some 1,450 nautical miles or 2,688 kilometers from land in any direction, the closest people to them outside of their competitors were the astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS).
As the five-strong crewed sailed underneath the ISS, orbiting at 17,500 miles an hour, 250 miles overhead, the crew decided to send a message to their nearest neighbors …
And a few days later they got a reply..
Discover more about the oceanview effect
The phenomenon astronauts experience when they look down on planet Earth from space is known as The Overview Effect. Coined by author Frank White, who described it as: “… a message from the universe to humanity. The message is that the Earth, when seen from orbit or the moon, is a whole system, where borders and boundaries disappear, and everything is interconnected.”
There is another way to understand the true nature of the planet, and it can be encountered here on Earth: The Oceanview Effect. This is what sailors experience when they sail out of sight of land and head into the open ocean.