亞特蘭蒂斯號的結束最後任務
“Having fired the imagination of a generation, a ship like no other, its place in history secured, the space shuttle pulls into port for the last time, its voyage at an end.” So declares the narrator watching the Atlantis shuttle land at dawn this morning, closing out NASA’s space-shuttle program after thirty years.
今天傍晚，隨亞特蘭蒂斯號航天飛機的着陸，美國NASA的30年航天計劃告一段落。看着亞特蘭蒂斯着陸的人這樣描述：“結束了一代人的幻想，一艘獨一無二的飛船終於最後一次駛回港口，它的旅程結束了，但它將名垂青史。”
Upon touchdown, Chris Ferguson, the Atlantis commander, declared this the “last stop,” then addressed Houston, and everyone else listening: “You know, the space station’s changed the way we view our world, and it’s changed the way we view our universe. A lot of emotion today, but one thing’s indisputable: America’s not gonna stop exploring.”
在降落之後，亞特蘭蒂斯的船長Chris Ferguson宣佈這是最後一次飛行，並且向大家做了講話：“我們大家都知道，宇宙空間站改變了我們的世界觀，也改變了我們的宇宙觀。今天的確是感慨萬千，但是有一件事情毋庸置疑：那就是美國的探索不會終結。”
It’s sometimes surprising to remember that astronauts like Chris Ferguson are still a part of our present, not some fetishized nostalgia item like glass Coke bottles. We don’t bow to airplane pilots the way we once did (except, perhaps, Sully), and Presidents are more the subjects of derision than idolatry. But astronauts remain astronauts: pure and heroic in a way that’s rarely summoned outside childhood, the fifties, or rare moments of national unity. Is it that the vastness of space is so powerful that it inspires even in adults a childlike sense of wonder, or that we all still remember that feeling from when we were young—of limitlessness, of the unknown, of the unknowable—and access it each time we think about what lies above the clouds?
很多時候讓人覺得驚訝的是，像Chris Ferguson這樣的航天員依然站在第一線，他並沒有伴隨那些狂熱的懷舊情緒而最終變成一個陳列品。我們不會像以前那樣對一個宇航員鞠躬致禮，而且總統現在更多會被鄙視而不是崇拜。但是航天員還是航天員：他們是純粹和英雄的代表，這樣的氣概人們在成年之後就很難再有；他們也是鮮有的能夠代表國家團結的標誌。是宇宙的浩瀚無際激發了成人心中的那份探索未知的童真，還是我們一直未曾忘卻年輕時那種無拘無束、直面未知的感覺，並在我們每次想起雲上的天空時重溫舊夢？
America’s “not gonna stop exploring,” perhaps, but surely some of the dignity will be drained as exploration becomes more of a business than a federal exercise of the public imagination. It’s hard to picture words like Ferguson’s coming from the captain of the SpaceX Dragon, which you may be able to ride in 2014, for only twenty million dollars a seat, and sad to envision space as the next pony or Disneyland—a world that children more often whine than ponder.
那句“美國不會停止探索”，也許是對的，但是隨着太空探索正變得越來越像商業行爲而不是爲了滿足人們的想象而進行的實踐，它也多少失去了往日的尊嚴。很難想象Ferguson船長這樣的人從星際威龍X號上下來後會說什麼——在2014年，你也能乘上這艘船，而且只需要2000萬美元就能獲得一個座位。而想到外太空會變得像孩子們哭喊着要去的迪斯尼樂園或者其他的什麼娛樂設施，實在是讓人沮喪。
Poking around the NASA site this morning, I found myself especially touched by the crew’s morning routine. Each day begins with a wake-up call—usually in musical form, and often with a recorded greeting from the artist. The crew members pick the playlist, along with friends and family. The last wake-up call of the space shuttle mission was Kate Smith’s version of Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.” The day before: “Fanfare for the Common Man.” And the video below comes from Day 7: R.E.M.’s “Man on the Moon.” Maybe it’s just that I most loved Michael Stipe around the same time I most loved outer space, but I find something lovely in picturing the people heading up to the space station, or those waiting for them down below, selecting a song so earnestly on-point, and something moving in watching it delivered to this hunk of metal—a sci-fi movie today would have it be far sleeker—suspended above Earth.
在NASA的周圍閒逛，讓我感觸最深的就是船員們每天早晨的例行公事。每天早晨都會有音樂叫大家起牀，居多是藝術家錄製的問候。船員們和他們的家人朋友們一起挑選了這些曲目。最後一天的晨起音樂是凱特史密斯的《天佑美國》。前一天是《凡人協奏曲》，而配上的音樂視頻是第七天的《月亮上的人》。也許正是在我最喜歡邁克爾斯泰普的時候，我也最喜歡與外太空有關的東西，但是當我想象着那些奔赴宇宙空間站的人和那些在地球上等着他們並挑選一首恰到好處的歌曲的人時，我感受到了一些非常美好的東西；當我看着這些精心挑選的歌曲被傳送到懸浮在地球上空的鋼鐵巨物中去時，我被感動了。
