On the cover is a photo that my crewmate and space walking partner Mike Fossum took of me while I was in the cupola of the International Space Station. The photo was taken from the Russian docking compartment Pirs as we passed over coastal Australia.

I have always called this picture Downside Up Down Under. Peter Gabriel inspired the name of the photo through the many discussions he and I have had, both on Earth and while I was in space, about the nexus between space, music, culture, and the orbital perspective. Peter's song “Downside Up” and his explanation of the song perfectly capture the sentiment of the photo and the essence of the orbital perspective: “At one point the world turns upside down, and you have to imagine lying on a field of grass and looking up at the sky long enough that you start to see the sky as down, as an ocean below you, and that is the state ‘downside up.'”

Downside up, upside down

Take my weight from the ground

Falling deep in the sky

Slipping in the unknown

All the strangers look like family

All the family looks so strange

The only constant I am sure of

Is this accelerating rate of change

…

I stand here

Watch you spinning

Until I am drawn in

A centripetal force

You pull me in

—PETER GABRIEL