Bruce McCandless:The First Astronaut to Fly 1)Untethered in Space

⊙By Russell Lewis ⊙ 翻譯：BillyBudd

提起人類航天史上的著名宇航員，你可能會想起加加林——進入太空第一人，或者尼爾·阿姆斯特朗——登月第一人，但你很可能不知道布魯斯·麥坎德利斯，哪怕你早已看過他那張歷史性的照片——身背航天裝置的宇航員獨自在太空漂浮。麥坎德利斯正是人類第一個未系帶在太空中行走，像衛(wèi)星一樣環(huán)繞地球“飛行”的宇航員，他與同事長達五個小時的太空漫步催生了“人體衛(wèi)星”（human satellite）一詞。麥坎德利斯在去年12月去世了，但他在太空自由漂浮的情景將永載人類史冊。

1) untether [?n?tee?] v. 解下栓（牛、馬的）繩，無纜

NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless has died. You may not know his name, but you’ve probably seen him in one of the most famous pictures ever taken in space. In 1984,McCandless strapped on a jet-powered backpack and flew away from the shuttle,by himself, untethered, with the Earth as a backdrop. It was the first time an astronaut ever floated free in space, and McCandless helped develop the technology.

Bruce McCandless had been an astronaut for a long time before he first flew in space aboard the shuttle. He was one of the ones who communicated with the2）crew [kru?] n. （輪船、飛機等的）全體工作人員crew ofApollo 11. Here’s Neil Armstrong talking to McCandless as the spacecraft was about to enter lunar3）orbit [???b?t] n. 軌道orbit during the first moon landing in 1969—

（Recording in file）

Neil: It’s a view worth the price of the trip.

Bruce: Well, there are a lot of us down here that would be willing to come along.

While he was waiting his turn to fly in space,he helped design what became to be known as the MMU—the4）manned [m?nd] adj. （指機器）有人控制的，載人的Manned5）maneuver [m??nu?v?] v. 操縱Maneuvering Unit. McCandless first went to space in 1984 aboard the shuttleChallengerand took these jet-powered backpacks along. During the mission, McCandless climbed into the 300-pound6）contraption [k?n?tr?p?n] n. 奇妙的裝置，新發(fā)明contraption and slowly eased out of the shuttle’s7）cargo bay 貨艙cargo bay as mission controllers looked on.

（Recording in file）

Commander: You have a lot of8）envious [?env??s] adj. 妒嫉的envious people watching you. Looks like you’re having a lot of fun up there.

Bruce: Yeah, it’s working very nicely.

Neil Armstrong was on Bruce McCandless’s mind when he took that first untethered9）foray [?f?re?] v. 突襲，冒險foray into space. More than three decades later, he remembered precisely what he said.

Bruce: It may have been one small step for Neil…注

（Recording in file）

Bruce: …but it’s a heck of a big leap for me.Commander:10）roger [?r?d??（r）] int. （無線電通訊答語）已收到Roger. Copy that, Bruce.

During a 2016 NPR interview, McCandless recalled the tension associated with the spacewalk. He said he wanted to say something to put people at ease.

Bruce: My wife happened to be in Mission Control at the time. And she says the laughter11）literally [?l?t?r?l?] adv. 差不多，簡直literally12）bring down the house 引起哄堂大笑brought down the house, which was sort of what I had intended. I wanted to13）loosen up 放松loosen things up a little.

注：阿姆斯特朗在登月時曾說：“That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. （對于一個人來說，這只是一小步，但對人類來說，這是一次飛躍。）”

It was14）nerve-wracking [?nз?v?r?k??] adj. 極端令人頭疼的，非常傷腦筋的nerve-wracking seeing McCandless out in space by himself. Relative to the Earth,he was flying almost 18,000 miles per hour.But relative to the shuttle, he was moving at a15）leisurely [?le??l?] adv. 從容不迫地，悠閑地leisurely one foot per second. He says he wasn’t nervous. He found it effortless. He had trained for that moment for years, ready for anything—if the suit’s16）propulsion [pr??p?l?n] n. 推進，推進力propulsion system failed or problems communicating with the shuttle.

By the end of that spacewalk, he had moved a little more than 300 feet away from the shuttle when the famous picture was taken, him facing the17）orbiter [???b?t?（r）] n. （繞天體作軌道運行的）軌道飛行器orbiter with the Earth and space in the background.McCandless says part of the attraction is the image’s18）anonymity [??n??n?m?t?] n. 匿名；無特色anonymity.

Bruce: I had the…the gold sun19）visor [?va?z?（r）] n. （頭盔上的）面罩visor down so that in principle people can imagine themselves in there instead of me.

McCandless said he was most proud that children came up to him later in life to say they’d seen the picture. He hoped it would inspire the next generation of explorers.

Bruce: I like to encourage20）folk [f??k] n. 人們，大家folks to look at that and say, “Well, I can do better than that.”

Bruce McCandless showed the way. He finished second in his class of 899 at the U.S.Naval Academy and used his engineering skills to make spaceflight safer. He once said the first untethered spacewalk was a mix of personal21）elation [??le??n] n. 興高采烈，歡欣鼓舞elation and professional pride.

CY百科

◆ Apollo 11 阿波羅11號：1969年美國國家航空航天局的阿波羅計劃（Project Apollo）中執(zhí)行第五次載人任務(wù)時的飛船，這也是人類的第一次登月任務(wù)。尼爾·阿姆斯特朗（Neil Armstrong）是飛船的指令長，布魯斯·麥坎德利斯則是其支持團隊成員之一。

◆ Challenger 挑戰(zhàn)者號：“挑戰(zhàn)者號”航天飛機是美國正式使用的第二架航天飛機，于1983年4月正式進行任務(wù)首航。1984年2月，布魯斯·麥坎德利斯搭乘“挑戰(zhàn)者號”升空并留下“漫步太空”的經(jīng)典圖像?！疤魬?zhàn)者號”在1986年1月發(fā)射升空后第73秒解體，機上七名宇航員全部罹難。

見招拆招

作文素材常積累：布魯斯·麥坎德利斯——It was a wonderful feeling, a mix of personal elation and professional pride: It had taken many years to get to that point. 布魯斯不系繩太空行走的舉動曾被《紐約時報》稱贊是“勇氣和美的奇觀”，“人體衛(wèi)星”一詞的誕生也有他的一份功勞?？墒?，這樣的功成名就并非一蹴而就的事情。布魯斯·麥坎德利斯的飛行時間累計超過5200小時；他在太空中停留的時間超過312小時。成功的光鮮身影背后，有著我們不曾看到的努力和艱辛。

During the mission, McCandless climbed into the 300-pound contraption and slowly eased out of the shuttle’s cargo bay as mission controllers looked on.

Ease既可以作名詞表示“安逸，舒適；不費力”，也可以作動詞表示“減輕（痛苦），緩和；緩慢地移動”。其最常見的搭配是at ease，表示“（使）自在；稍息（軍隊口令）”。如：

● He was intelligent and capable of passing his exams with ease. （他很聰明，能夠輕松通過考試。）

● She eased her way towards the door. （她緩緩向門口挪動。）

● At ease! Attention! （稍息！立正！）

參考譯文

美國國家航空航天局的宇航員布魯斯·麥坎德利斯去世了。你也許不知道他的名字，但你可能早在最著名的一張?zhí)照掌弦娺^他的身影——1984年，麥坎德利斯背著一個噴氣動力背包飛離航天飛機，不系帶，獨自一人，地球成了他的背景。這是史上第一次有宇航員在太空中自由漂浮，而麥坎德利斯本人還是這一技術(shù)的協(xié)助開發(fā)者。

在首次搭乘航天飛機飛向太空之前，布魯斯·麥坎德利斯早就是一名資深宇航員了。他是在地面跟“阿波羅11號”的宇航員團隊通話的人之一。下面是1969年人類首次登月時，宇航員尼爾·阿姆斯特朗跟麥坎德利斯的對話，當時“阿波羅11號”即將進入月球軌道——

（存檔錄音）

尼爾：眼前的景色物有所值。

布魯斯：好吧，我們下面還有很多人會非常樂意一塊兒去。

在等待自己飛向太空的機會到來之時，他幫助設(shè)計了被稱為MMU的太空載人機動裝置。麥坎德利斯在1984年乘坐“挑戰(zhàn)者號”航天飛機第一次飛向太空時，還帶上了這些噴氣背包。任務(wù)期間，麥坎德利斯在地面控制中心的注視下，爬進了那套重達300磅（約136公斤）的裝置，緩慢地離開了“挑戰(zhàn)者號”的機艙。

（存檔錄音）

指揮官：有很多羨慕不已的人正在看著你，貌似你在上面玩得很開心啊。

布魯斯：是的，一切順利。

在第一次不系繩在太空行走時，麥坎德利斯心里想著的是尼爾·阿姆斯特朗。三十多年后，他仍能準確無誤地記起了當時說過的話。布魯斯：這對尼爾來說可能是一小步……

（存檔錄音）

布魯斯：……卻是我邁出的一大步。

指揮官：好，收到，布魯斯。

在2016年美國國家公共電臺的一次訪談中，麥坎德利斯曾談及那次太空行走時的緊張氣氛。他說，自己希望說點什么讓地面的人放松一點。

布魯斯：我妻子當時碰巧也在地面控制中心。她說，當時所有人都笑翻了，這也是我的本意——我希望大家能放松一點。

看到麥坎德利斯獨自一人在太空中漂浮，確實令人神經(jīng)緊張。相對于地球，他當時的飛行時速幾乎達到了1.8萬英里（約2.9萬千米）；但相對于航天飛機，他簡直是在閑庭漫步，其每秒移動速度僅一英尺（約0.3米）。他說自己并不緊張，并稱太空漫步毫不費力。他已經(jīng)為那一刻訓練了好幾年，為所有可能出現(xiàn)的突發(fā)情況做足了準備——包括裝置的推進系統(tǒng)發(fā)生故障，或者與航天飛機的通信出現(xiàn)問題等。

到那次太空行走結(jié)束時，他離航天飛機已經(jīng)有300多英尺（約91米）遠。那張著名的太空照片正是在此時拍攝的，他在照片中面對軌道衛(wèi)星，地球和太空就在他身后。麥坎德利斯說，這張照片之所以吸引人，其中一個原因正在于它的匿名性。

布魯斯：我當時放下了……金色遮陽面罩，所以，基本上人們可以想象自己在做著同樣的事，而不僅僅是我。

麥坎德利斯說，讓他感到最自豪的是，在那之后曾不時有孩子跑到我跟前說，他們都看過這張照片。他希望這能激勵下一代的探索者。

布魯斯：我希望這會鼓勵人們都看看那張照片，說：“嗯，我可以做得更好?！?/p>

布魯斯·麥坎德利斯已經(jīng)成為我們的榜樣。他當年從美國海軍學院畢業(yè)時，在那屆899名學員中排名第二。后來，他運用自己學到的工程技術(shù)知識提高了宇宙航行的安全性。他曾說，首次不系繩太空行走帶給他的既有一種個人的興奮感，也有一種職業(yè)自豪感。