This is not a narrative-driven or compulsive book. It's a poetic and philosophical book.
It presents a set of vignettes describing the beauty of planet earth, meaning of life questions, some politics and some science. Instead of chapters, we have orbitals which is one spin
…more around the planet earth. Each "spin cycle" has a little theme. This is basically a smart author thinking out loud about heavy stuff.
We share the emotions and inner philosophizing of the 6 astronauts who report their adventures. There are women and “Christian Americans”. Two of the “astronauts” are cosmonauts, that is Russian, which is weirdly (accurately?) a source of rivalry and separation. It immediately recalls the John Lennon verse "Imagine there's no country". Although national borders are not visible from space, the boundaries are clear on the space station. Too bad.
The magnificent beauty of the planet earth is described in an abundance of colors, which felt like a Crayola Crayon box of creative names. Very beautifully written. You can pull in a lot of science if you read electronically and Google everything. Orbital is not a technical book. I love the part where the lab mice learn to fly.
If you had trouble interpreting the orbital graphic, try this:
• The International Space Station moves in a prograde orbit, which means it is moving in the same direction as the earth’s rotation.
• The ISS travels at ~17K mph, so it is going faster than earth and is lapping it 16 times per day.
• The ISS is in low earth orbit a mere 250 miles above sea level. Musk’s 4500 Starlink satellites are around 350 miles high. (The moon is way out there at about 230,000 miles.)
• The ISS travels with about a 50-degree tilt. (Circling at the equator would be 0 tilt) The Starlink satellites crisscross the globe from about 50 to 90 degrees. We need Internet at the poles! (less)
