Back to Earth

As I write, several US astronauts are at the International Space Station. Today they reported a problem, an obnoxious odor in the capsule, which forced them to don their oxygen masks. Well, I'm not even going to touch that one.

I heard that they're coming "back to Earth" later this week. Well, they haven't really left the earth in the first place, they're only flying around the Earth.

When the co-pilot makes an announcement to prepare for landing, he or she doesn't say, "Prepare to return to Earth." They could, because the plane left the Earth, much in the way the astronauts leave the Earth. I'll grant that they're much, much higher than the passengers in the plane, but they're still within the gravitational pull of the Earth.

Unless one goes to the Moon, or another planet, they haven't really left the Earth. Humans haven't yet gone to Mars. If and when they do, I hope that they will return to Earth.