From Alan Shepard to Artemis, celebrating 65 years of Americans in space
From Alan Shepard to Artemis, celebrating 65 years of Americans in space
从艾伦·谢泼德到“阿尔忒弥斯”：纪念美国载人航天 65 周年
Shepard’s historic spaceflight helped set the stage for future launches — culminating in the Artemis II mission this year. 谢泼德的历史性太空飞行不仅为未来的发射奠定了基础，更在今年以“阿尔忒弥斯二号”（Artemis II）任务达到了高潮。
On the morning of May 5th, 1961, 37-year-old Alan Shepard woke up, ate a breakfast (consisting of a filet mignon wrapped in bacon, scrambled eggs, and orange juice), strapped into the Freedom 7 rocket, and blasted off into space, becoming the first American astronaut to do so. 1961 年 5 月 5 日清晨，37 岁的艾伦·谢泼德起床，吃了一顿早餐（包括培根裹菲力牛排、炒蛋和橙汁），随后进入“自由 7 号”（Freedom 7）火箭，发射升空，成为首位进入太空的美国宇航员。
Shepard’s historic flight — and the first crewed flight of Project Mercury — did two things. It demonstrated that after getting beat to space by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, America was still in the race. And it proved the United States could safely send a human into space and back, helping to restore national confidence during the Cold War. 谢泼德的这次历史性飞行——也是“水星计划”（Project Mercury）的首次载人飞行——实现了两个目标。它证明了在被苏联宇航员尤里·加加林抢先进入太空后，美国依然在太空竞赛中占有一席之地。同时，它也证明了美国有能力安全地将人类送入太空并返回，这在冷战时期极大地提振了美国的民族自信心。
Shepard’s flight only lasted 15 minutes, but it provided enough critical information to serve as a foundation for America’s human spaceflight program in the years to come. 谢泼德的飞行仅持续了 15 分钟，但它提供了足够关键的信息，为美国未来多年的载人航天计划奠定了基础。
Sixty-five years later, the Artemis program is attempting to build off that foundation by proving that humans can not only survive in space, but also build permanent infrastructure and thrive there. The Artemis II mission, which just concluded last month, was a particular high-water mark for human spaceflight, with the crew traveling farther than anyone in the history of the space program. 65 年后的今天，“阿尔忒弥斯”计划正试图在此基础上更进一步，证明人类不仅能在太空中生存，还能建立永久性基础设施并繁荣发展。上个月刚刚结束的“阿尔忒弥斯二号”任务是载人航天史上的一个重要里程碑，其机组人员飞行的距离超过了航天史上任何人的记录。
There have been ups and downs, of course. We’ve lived through enough mission delays, aborted launches, and funding cuts to know that anything we do in space is still constrained by the political and financial realities of what takes place here on the ground. Commercial space companies are not riding to the rescue; their priorities are tourism, satellites, and perhaps orbital data centers. 当然，这一路走来并非一帆风顺。我们经历了太多的任务延期、发射中止和预算削减，深知我们在太空中的任何行动，依然受到地面政治和经济现实的制约。商业航天公司并非救世主；他们的优先事项是太空旅游、卫星业务，或许还有轨道数据中心。
Americans are looking around at rising prices and wondering why so much money is being spent on rocket launches. It’s no longer enough to prove we can go to space. The question now is: Why do we keep going back? 美国民众看着不断上涨的物价，不禁质疑为何要投入巨资进行火箭发射。仅仅证明我们“能去太空”已经不够了。现在的问题是：我们为什么要不断地重返太空？
We know that human spaceflight is a remarkable tool for inspiring people to pursue a STEM education. It drives students and engineers and future astronauts to try to solve some of the biggest mysteries in the universe. Ultimately, it’s a desire to explore. These photos from America’s first foray into the human spaceflight program are a good reminder of that instinct. 我们知道，载人航天是激励人们投身 STEM（科学、技术、工程、数学）教育的绝佳工具。它驱动着学生、工程师和未来的宇航员去尝试解开宇宙中一些最大的谜团。归根结底，这源于探索的渴望。这些来自美国首次载人航天计划的照片，正是对这种本能的最好提醒。