2015-05-22

【Aiden in English】

        Neil Alden Armstrong grew up like any other kid, not knowing what life would hold in store for him. It was a world of unknown and opportunities. Born in Wapakoneta, Ohio on August fifth, 1930, Armstrong probably didn’t know that one day he would be the first man on the moon, carrying the Americans, along with the rest of the world, to a whole different level of possibilities. Yet the stage was set for his road to fame at a very young age.

        It all started on his first plane ride at the age of six. Airplanes drew Armstrong’s interest as ice cream would draw a child. He pursued his passion of flight, beginning lessons when he was fourteen. Also, Armstrong had a large interest in the final frontier or outer space. Along with the fact that his neighbor possessed a powerful telescope, his fascination was encouraged when he saw the stars, moon, and planets. On his sixteenth birthday, Armstrong was given a pilot’s license. For a person so young, Armstrong showed a very serious sort of amazement, building models of planes in the basement and even a small wind tunnel where the air was forced in to the tunnel, controlling the speeds for study. It was just a beginning to what would be a marvelous career, and the start to fame.

        Armstrong’s studies and interest were temporarily stopped, for the Korean War was taking place. Like all the other 1,789,000 Americans called on to serve, Armstrong’s skills were put to use as a navy aviator. At the age of eighteen, he was sent to the Naval Air Station Pensacola for a year and a half of basic training. Once promoted to a fully active naval aviator, Armstrong was assigned to join Fighter Squadron Fifty-one, a fighter jet group. Sailing on the USS Essex, an aircraft carrier, Armstrong made his way to the sounds of chaos. He piloted a Grumman F9F-2B Panther, the first jet that was transported on an aircraft carrier and the mainly used fighter jet in the Korean War. This jet had four built-in cannons, making it a very effect air-to-ground unit. This particular jet made as a bomber as well, and Armstrong flew seventy-eight combat missions with it. That was a full 121 hours in the air. After the war, Armstrong was awarded the Air Medal for the first twenty missions, and then the Gold Star for the next twenty. Finally, he was given the Korean Service Medal and an Engagement Star.

        Armstrong, now as a veteran of the Korean War, served eight more years as a Junior Grade Lieutenant. He resigned his post later, and went back to college at Purdue. There, Armstrong’s grade shot through the roof, and he could re-ignite his interests. After college, Armstrong went to work with the NACA, the association that later became NASA. He began to build and test certain aircrafts, such as the Convair F-106 Delta Dart and the Bell X-1B. Armstrong also followed his dream job on the Titan II. He became an astronaut working on the Gemini VIII program, which was a project that was trying to get a man in orbit of the earth.  He was aboard the Titan II rocket, following the Agena Target Vehicle, an unmanned spacecraft. These two rockets were the first to ever dock in space, but then something a problem occurred on the Titan II. The crafts were beginning to spin at dangerous speeds. Armstrong undocked the Agena, but that only made the Titan II spin even faster. That resulted in tumbling back to earth, rotating at extreme speeds. At a point, Titan II was spinning at one revolution per second. The protocol kicked in and the mission was aborted. Although it was a rough ride down, Armstrong managed to survive and splash down safely.

        Walking on the moon is every child’s dream, and for Armstrong, the only difference was that he was able to turn a simple child’s imagination into reality. He made history during the Gemini VIII mission when Armstrong took the role of being the head captain of Apollo XI. He rode the Eagle, the module of Apollo XI, into the final frontier, and on July 20^th, 1969, the Eagle module touched down on the bay of the Sea of Tranquility. Aboard the capsule that would set history was Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. The Eagle was also much more spacious than Titan II, and Armstrong was very grateful of that. At a young age, he was prone to motion sickness in cramped, small spaces, especially for long durations. Armstrong was the first person on step on the rocky surface of the moon. As he was taking the step of the century, Armstrong said his famous words. “One small step of [a] man, one giant leap for man-kind.” Indeed, it was a large leap of man-kind, for in that moment, America had taken a huge advantage in the Cold War against Soviet Unions, allowed humanity to a new prospective of the galaxy, and uncovered a batch of new possibilities to the explorers of the universe’s answers. Scientists were able to carry out experiments on the samples collected by Armstrong and the Eagle’s crew. Armstrong also conducted a few simple experiments on the moon, too, but their time on the moon was cut short due to the uncertainty of how the suits would react to the temperatures of the vacuum of space. The atmosphere on the moon was thin, so the temperatures could fluctuate from 523 degrees to negative 387 degrees Fahrenheit. Armstrong could only stay for about two and a half hours on the surface, but the crew slept aboard the Eagle that night. The next day in universal time, the first craft to ever make it to the moon began its way home.

        The Eagle module stayed about twenty-one hours on the moon, in which the astronauts on board explored the area of the landing site and slept. The module started its long way home on July 21^st, completing the journey by crashing down in the Pacific Ocean. The splash down was twelve nautical miles south-west of Hawaii, and the President Richard Nixon came to greet the heroes aboard the USS Hornet. The crews of the Apollo XI were quarantined for eighteen days for extra caution. After an event that pretty much put his name in every modern science and history book, Armstrong settled down to teach at the University of Cincinnati. He continued to pursue his favorite subject, becoming a Professor of Aerospace Engineering. He taught for eight years, and retired after that. Soon, Armstrong underwent surgery on August 7^th, 2012, though. Death soon followed, due to the complications of the surgery. Armstrong had blocked coronary arteries which needed to be unclogged which had caused the surgery, and on August 25^th, the aftermath of the surgery caught up him, and he passed away. The President Barack Obama addressed Armstrong by saying: “Neil [Armstrong] was among the greatest of American heroes, not just of his time, but of all time.”

        Armstrong was just like any other kid, not knowing what the future held for him. He lived somewhat more successful than the average person. As he was buried at sea, the world remembered him. The flight of Apollo XI would be an extraordinary event, and the people’s souls on earth flew with it. They would and will remember him, as his achievements and accomplishments were not buried with the great American hero.

【红霞译文】

        尼尔·奥尔登·阿姆斯特朗成长之路与其他孩子没有什么不同，也就是说早先未必清楚自己的前程，一切充满未知，机会无处不在。一九三O年八月五日，阿姆斯特朗出生于俄亥俄州沃帕科内塔镇，当时并未想到有一天将肩负美国乃至全世界人民的热切期望，勇敢地穿越外空，成为天下第一个登上月球的先驱。其实早在年幼时期，他已经树立目标朝这个方向努力。

        往事追溯回首次乘坐飞机，正如冰激凌吸引孩童的味觉，飞机博取了年仅六岁阿姆斯特朗的注意力。十四岁起，他着手学习基础知识，立志追逐飞行之梦，同时还对外空抱以浓厚的兴趣。无巧不成书，街坊邻居有一台高倍望远镜，他用来观察恒星、月亮、行星，之后对宇宙天体更加憧憬。十六岁生日那天，阿姆斯特朗考取了飞行驾驶执照，于是便在地下室开始建造飞机模型甚至小风洞，借助空气压缩管道从事控制气流速度的研究，年纪轻轻的他已初露惊人的才气，但这仅仅是一个开头，其辉煌的职业生涯从此拉开序幕。

        由于朝鲜战争爆发，阿姆斯特朗曾一度中止学习放弃爱好，178.9万美国公民应征参战。根据个人特长，阿姆斯特朗当上海军后备飞行员。十八岁时，他被送往彭萨科拉海军飞行基地进行长达一年半之久的基础训练，从此以海军现役飞行员的身份进入第五十一战斗机中队。他跟随埃塞克斯号航空母舰出海，连闹出的噪音声响都与众不同。阿姆斯特朗驾驶的格鲁门公司F9F-2B黑豹战斗机是该航空母舰首次运载专门用于朝鲜战争的喷气式战斗机，其内设四门发射台，堪称空对地有效武器。这种喷气式战斗机也可被用作轰炸机，阿姆斯特朗一共驾驶过七十八次，飞行时间长达121小时。战争结束后，他因完成前后各廿次任务而分别荣获飞行奖章和金星奖章，最终还被授予朝鲜服役勋章及“参战之星”光荣称号。

        如今身为朝鲜战争退役老兵的阿姆斯特朗出任初级中尉，一干就是八年。后来辞职重新回到普渡大学继续求学之路。在校期间，他出类拔萃，再次拾起中断多年的个人爱好。大学毕业后，阿姆斯特朗来到美国航空航天局的前身国家航空咨询委员会担任试飞员，在那里他开始设计试验诸如F-106三角标枪战斗机和贝尔X-1B型等超音速飞机，接下来他又参与梦寐以求的“巨人－2”号火箭发射工作，担任“双子星－8”号太空宇航员并完成地球轨道上载人航天飞行任务。他登上“巨人－2”号，同行的还有运载火箭“火力神目标飞行器”即无人驾驶飞船，首次实现了轨道对接，但稍后“巨人－2”号出现突发状况，飞船以极其危险的速度旋转，阿姆斯特朗决定解离“火力神”，但“巨人－2”号旋转愈发超速，迫使“巨人－2”号返回大气层，此时，该航天器以每秒一周的速度飞快旋转。按照操作步骤，宇航员不得不放弃事先拟定的太空计划。返程途中更是险象横生，但阿姆斯特朗机智应对，总算安全返回地面。

        月球行走是每个孩子心中的梦想，与众不同的是阿姆斯特朗能把童年的梦想化成现实。在执行“双子星－8”号飞行任务期间及担任“阿波罗－11”号宇宙飞船指令长时，无论轨道对接还是舱外活动无一不是航天史上前所未有的壮举。阿姆斯特朗驾驶“鹰号”阿波罗登月舱进入外层空间，于一九六九年七月廿日降落在宁静海，与同时实现登月计划的巴兹·奥尔德林和迈克尔·柯林斯一起谱写出辉煌的历史篇章。言外之意，“鹰号”登月舱要比“巨人－2”号宽敞得多，这使阿姆斯特朗不胜欣慰，因为小的时候，狭窄环境极易引起阿姆斯特朗晕车，特别还要经历很长时间。阿姆斯特朗是第一位踏上月球地面的人，为了这一步，人类不惜付出长达一个世纪之久的代价，正如阿姆斯特朗发表的著名感言：“这是一个人的一小步，却是人类的一大步。”事实如此，由于登月成功，美国在对苏联冷战中扬眉吐气，进而极大地促进人类探索宇宙奥秘，并使科学家有机会从阿姆斯特朗及其同行者采集的标本中展开实验研究。登月期间，阿姆斯特朗曾做过简单试验，但由于担心宇航服无法应对外星真空环境的温度变化而缩短滞留时间。月球空气稀薄，气温从523^oF到-387^oF（273^oC到-197^oC）变化不定，阿姆斯特朗在月球表面仅仅两个半小时，但“鹰号”登月舱宇航员在那里足足睡了一个晚上，世界标准时间第二天，第一艘登月飞船才踏上归家之路。

        “鹰号”登月舱在月球上一共逗留了廿一个小时，宇航员舱外探险睡觉休息，登月舱于七月廿一日开始漫长的返航征程，飞行结束时“啪唧”一下在栽进太平洋中，落在夏威夷西南12海里以外的水域，理查德·尼克松总统乘坐大黃蜂号航空母舰亲自前往迎接凯旋而归的英雄豪杰。为安全起见，“阿波罗－11”号全体宇航员返回地面后被隔离了十八天，他们的美名纷纷走进科学教材被纳入历史书籍当中。功成名就之后，阿姆斯特朗来到辛辛那提大学，在航空航天工程系教书育人，继续从事自己热爱的事业；八年后，他决定退休。二O一二年八月七日，阿姆斯特朗罹患冠状动脉硬化正接受心脏搭桥手术，但因术后并发症不治而于八月廿五日与世长辞，巴拉克·奥巴马总统发表吊唁：“尼尔不仅是这个时代、而是美国历史上最伟大的英雄之一。”

        阿姆斯特朗成长之路确实与其他孩子相同，并不知道未来怎样，但他却比一般人成功。其骨灰被撒入大海，全世界无不缅怀这位航天界开拓前辈。因为“阿波罗－11”登月之行，阿姆斯特朗豪迈壮举深深打动人们的心灵，人们将永远铭记他所创下的不朽功勋。