Although the ocean's surface seems at first to be exactly the same

Although the ocean's surface seems at first to be exactly the same, after half a month we began to differentiate various seas and even different parts of oceans by their characteristic shades. We were astonished to discover that, during a flight, you have to learn anew not only to look, but also to see.

The minutes of evening twilight are fabulous. The hull of the station is lit by the golden rays of the Sun. The daylight part of the Earth with its pink clouds and evening haze above the surface is still visible while our spacecraft is already sailing into the blackness of night.

The Sun \see at least eight different bands of color come and go, from a brilliant red to the brightest and deepest blue. And you see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day you're in space. No sunrise or sunset is ever the same.

From orbit we observed all the seasons of the year. The launch was in the spring, and we flew throughout the summer and fall and the start of winter. At first the whiteness gave way to the green of summer, and then gold covered the fields and forests, and then the whiteness again.