The Moon Landing|登陆月球

by Marcus Maurice

Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon in July of 1969.

尼尔．阿姆斯特朗于 1969 年 7 月成为首位漫步月球的人。

In 1962, US President John F. Kennedy stated, "We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard..." After JFK was assassinated, many people thought the space program would also die. But in 1969, the US sent a team of astronauts to the moon and made history. Six hundred million people around the world were glued to their TVs when Neil Armstrong stepped out of the hatch of Apollo 11 and set foot on the moon's surface. As soon as he proclaimed, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind," celebrations rang out.

Soon, Armstrong was joined by Buzz Aldrin on the moon's surface, and both men found that getting around was easier than they had envisioned because its gravity was only one-sixth of the Earth's. Both astronauts did experiments, collected 21.5 kilograms of samples, and then planted a US flag on the moon. President Richard Nixon even talked to them up there through a telephone-radio transmission device. The two astronauts were originally allotted 34 minutes on the surface of the moon, but because their vital signs were fine, they got a 15-minute extension. After their mission was complete, the astronauts went to sleep for seven hours. Eight days later, the astronauts splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and were kept in quarantine for 21 days to make sure they were healthy. When released, parades were held in New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles to celebrate this great accomplishment.

　　1962 年，当时的美国总统约翰‧肯尼迪说：『我们选择在这 10 年上月球还有进行其他事，不是因为它们很简单，而是因为他们很艰难……。』在肯尼迪被暗杀后，许多人以为这项太空计划也将终止。但是在 1969 年，美国将一组航天员送上月球，创造了历史。当尼尔‧阿姆斯特朗走出阿波罗 11 号的船舱口踏上月球表面时，全球 6 亿人都紧盯着电视看。当他一宣告『虽然这是我个人的一小步，却是人类的一大步』时，便响起了一片欢声鼓舞。

　　不久后，伯兹‧艾德林加入阿姆斯特朗，也踏上了月球表面，他们发现在月球移动比想象中容易，因为月球的重力只有地球的六分之一。两位航天员做了实验、收集了 21.5 公斤的样本，然后在月球上插上美国国旗。理查德‧尼克松总统甚至透过无线电传送装置和月球上的他们通话。这两位航天员原本只被允许待在月球表面 34 分钟，但是因为他们的生命迹象很稳定，所以得以延长 15 分钟。在达成任务后，他们睡了 7 个小时。8 天后，航天员降落在太平洋，并被隔离了 21 天以确认他们健康无虞。在他们被释放出来时，纽约、芝加哥及洛杉矶纷纷举行了游行，庆祝这伟大的成就。