亚特兰蒂斯号的结束最后任务

“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，随亚特兰蒂斯号航天飞机的着陆，美国NASA的30年航天计划告一段落。看着亚特兰蒂斯着陆的人这样描述：“结束了一代人的幻想，一艘独一无二的飞船终于最后一次驶回港口，它的旅程结束了，但它将名垂青史。”

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.”

在降落之后，亚特兰蒂斯的船长Chris Ferguson宣布这是最后一次飞行，并且向大家做了讲话：“我们大家都知道，宇宙空间站改变了我们的世界观，也改变了我们的宇宙观。今天的确是感慨万千，但是有一件事情毋庸置疑：那就是美国的探索不会终结。”

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?

很多时候让人觉得惊讶的是，像Chris Ferguson这样的航天员依然站在第一线，他并没有伴随那些狂热的怀旧情绪而最终变成一个陈列品。我们不会像以前那样对一个宇航员鞠躬致礼，而且总统现在更多会被鄙视而不是崇拜。但是航天员还是航天员：他们是纯粹和英雄的代表，这样的气概人们在成年之后就很难再有；他们也是鲜有的能够代表国家团结的标志。是宇宙的浩瀚无际激发了成人心中的那份探索未知的童真，还是我们一直未曾忘却年轻时那种无拘无束、直面未知的感觉，并在我们每次想起云上的天空时重温旧梦？

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 2017, 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“美国不会停止探索”，也许是对的，但是随着太空探索正变得越来越像商业行为而不是为了满足人们的想象而进行的实践，它也多少失去了往日的尊严。很难想象Ferguson船长这样的人从星际威龙X号上下来后会说什么——在2017年，你也能乘上这艘船，而且只需要2000万美元就能获得一个座位。而想到外太空会变得像孩子们哭喊着要去的迪斯尼乐园或者其他的什么娱乐设施，实在是让人沮丧。

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的周围闲逛，让我感触最深的就是船员们每天早晨的例行公事。每天早晨都会有音乐叫大家起床，居多是艺术家录制的问候。船员们和他们的家人朋友们一起挑选了这些曲目。最后一天的晨起音乐是凯特史密斯的《天佑美国》。前一天是《凡人协奏曲》，而配上的音乐视频是第七天的《月亮上的人》。也许正是在我最喜欢迈克尔斯泰普的时候，我也最喜欢与外太空有关的东西，但是当我想象着那些奔赴宇宙空间站的人和那些在地球上等着他们并挑选一首恰到好处的歌曲的人时，我感受到了一些非常美好的东西；当我看着这些精心挑选的歌曲被传送到悬浮在地球上空的钢铁巨物中去时，我被感动了。