the rainbow hues of lakes that dot the northern Himalayas. He said he would like to visit that region, though he would first need to learn “what country actually owns them”. But, “predominantly, you just notice how thin the atmosphere is, how fragile it looks,” Kelly added. “That, combined with these large swathes of pollution, is kind of alarming.” The astronaut said he could see entire systems of pollution: smoke clouds from wildfires that covered parts of the US, sections of Asia with continuous, visible pollution nearly all year round. He said the message “we need to save the planet” slightly missed the point: “The planet will get better; it’s us that won’t be here because we’ll destroy the environment.” The world’s thin shield of atmosphere “makes you more of an environmentalist after spending so much time looking down”, he said. “It’s for us to take care of the air we breathe and the water we drink. And I do believe we have an impact on that and we do have the ability to change it, if we make the decision to.” Kelly’s active social- media life, which he said was a joint effort with his girlfriend, earned him a huge online following. But he said he was unaware of it, instead he was watching the chaotic drama of the 2016 presidential election. One of the first questions he asked the crew who lifted him out of a space capsule was